7 Major Coronavirus Developments — RI Doesn't Meet White House Guidelines for Reopening
GoLocalProv News Team
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — RI Doesn't Meet White House Guidelines for Reopening
"Many states are lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions on social and business activity that were put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. Questions linger, however, about whether some states meet criteria set by public health experts and the federal government for doing so. Experts are keeping a close eye on whether states that have reopened are seeing an uptick in cases or a worsening in other key metrics," reports ProPublica.
Rhode Island does not meet the federal benchmark criteria for ICU units.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"To give people context on state reopenings, and what happens afterward, we are tracking metrics derived from a set of guidelines published by the White House for states to achieve before loosening restrictions. Even if these criteria are met, without a vaccine, reopening may cause an increase in cases. What’s more, some states may meet all of the criteria and still have a high infection rate," said the news research organization.
In mid-April, President Donald Trump released his phased plan to guide states to begin to reopen work, schools and leisure activities.
The “Opening Up American Again” guidelines outline a series of steps for the states. State are supposed to hit all of the milestones before reopening.
Trump told governors on a conference call on Thursday that “you’re gonna call your shots,” saying the guidelines were a recommendation.
7 Major Cornonavirus Developments Below
7 Major Coronavirus Developments—May 25, 2020
Trump Administration to Deliver 100 Million Swabs
The Washington Post is reporting the Trump administration is pledging to buy 100 million swabs by the year’s end and distribute them to states to help expand the nation’s capacity to test for the novel coronavirus.
The report to Congress delivered on the Sunday deadline lawmakers had set for federal health officials to submit a national testing strategy, "doubles down on the administration’s stance that individual states, not the federal government, should bear primary responsibility for carrying out diagnostic tests to help curb the pandemic."
New Type of Tourism in Italy
"Ahead of the Colosseum and Pompeii, the towering Greek temple complex at Paestum near Naples is the first Italian archaeological site to reopen to tourists after the coronavirus lockdown.
[Site director Gabrial] Zuchtriegel says the post-lockdown phase with fewer visitors to the three remarkably well-preserved temples in the Doric order should be seen as an opportunity.
"We must focus on another type of tourism, another relationship with visitors, more intense, more 'one to one', and who knows, I think this could be a model for developing 'slow tourism' in the future," he said.
So far visitors to the site have been scarce, but the numbers are expected to pick up when tourists are once more allowed to fly in to Italy from early June," reports The Local.It
'We're Expendable': Black Americans Pay the Price as States Lift Lockdowns - The Guardian
"Donald Trump recently shared a doctored video of his head superimposed on to actor Bill Pullman’s character in the 1996 film Independence Day’s crowd-rallying scene, likening frontline workers to warriors.
But it rang hollow for Denita Jones, a Dallas-area call center worker. For many black, essential workers like her, the message is about reopening the economy, but the real meaning is more subtle.
“We’re not essential, we’re expendable,” she said.
African Americans in Texas are dying of Covid-19 at a rate more than one-third higher than their share of the population. Yet across the country, the protesters who became the faces of the race to reopen have been mostly white."
We Know So Little
We received a stark reminder about how little we know about this new virus on Sunday.
Brown University's Dr. Megan Ranney at the Warren Alpert Medical School is becoming one of the leading national voices on frontline emergency healthcare workers battling coronavirus.
Ranney is a regular on national news giving insights into the constant battle at Rhode Island Hospital against the disease.
On Sunday, Ranney took to Twitter to provide followers with insights into how little we know about COVID-19. READ HERE
Early Signs of a Recovery
"Spending on hotels, restaurants, airlines and other industries hurt by social distancing remains low, but appears to be picking up. The number of travelers passing through Transportation Security Administration security screening checkpoints fell to 87,534 on April 14, 96% below the same day a year earlier. But by May 22, the figure had more than tripled to 348,673, although that is still down 88% from the same day a year earlier. Meanwhile, data from online restaurant-booking company OpenTable shows diners are beginning to return in several states," reports the Wall Street Journal.
“We’re past the trough in terms of peak damage,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, with high-frequency indicators showing “a burgeoning rebound in terms of how much people are spending.”
Numbers
14,065 Cases in Rhode Island
92,675 Cases in Massachusetts
608 Deaths in RI
6,372 Deaths in Massachusetts
1,677,819 Cases in the United States
98,035 Deaths in the United States
5,524,477 Global Cases
347,079 Global Deaths
2,315,441 Global Recoveries
GoLocal LIVE -- Tuesday, May 26, 2020
10:00 AM Zach Levesque, Northpointe discussing the economy and real estate market
12:00 PM - Dr. Michael Fine, Former RI Director of Health
1:00 PM - Governor Gina Raimondo Briefing
EDITOR'S NOTE: Gov. Raimondo has reversed her policy and is now allowing reporters to attend press conferences and directly ask questions. For more than 6 weeks she had blocked reporters from directly asking questions for the public to hear.
