NEW: Raimondo Announces Goal of Increasing Coronavirus Testing in RI by Over 600% by Fall
GoLocalProv News Team
NEW: Raimondo Announces Goal of Increasing Coronavirus Testing in RI by Over 600% by Fall
In the first month of coronavirus cases in the state, Rhode Island struggled to test over 200 people a day — and last weekend the state did not test even 2,000 a day — but Raimondo said that the state is now averaging 2,700 a day, and wants to get to 20,000 a day by the fall.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“We’ve averaged 2700 [tests] a day but we tend to have a dip on the weekends. We’ve already tested more than 80,000 Rhode Islanders,” said Raimondo. “I’d like to see us at 10,000 a day by July. And then we want to get to 20,000 a day…by end of September.”
Raimondo said she wants to ‘figure out who’s sick and get ahead of hotspots — and pinpoint our reaction so I never again have to say the whole state is shut down.”
“We need to have rapid, reliable, testing for everyone who has symptoms. Between the time you don’t feel well and call your doctor, we went to make sure in 48 hours you can get tested and get results,” said Raimondo.
Latest Numbers, Mother’s Day Appeal, and Launching Asymptomatic Testing
The Rhode Island Department of Health on Wednesday announced 15 new coronavirus fatalities in the state, bringing the total to 370.
RIDOH also reported 272 new positive cases for 10,205 in total.
“This year it’s going to have to be different,” said Raimondo of celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend. “If I lift the stay at home order, we’re still going to be very limited in the number of people we can be with in social gatherings. Especially if your mother is older or sick, it’s really not a great idea to race to see mom, with 15-20 people in the house, and that’s exactly what we cannot afford to have.”
“The point is, get creative. If your mother lives in a nursing home or assisted living — please don’t go see her,” said Raimondo. “I realize that’s a hard message for me to give. Don’t get together in a big crowd, that’s what I ask of you.”
Raimondo also addressed how the state is going to proceed moving forward.
“We need to create an early warning detection symptom by testing asymptomatic individuals, testing a lot of people ahead of time so we know there might be danger,” said Raymond. “We have to test high risk settings. By Monday it is our goal to have testing of every resident and every worker in nursing homes in Rhode Island.”
“We’ll have to have continuous testing of high-risk communities - cyclical testing for other high risk populations on a regular basis — schools, universities, large public sector employers,” she added.
“We’ll be performing both the diagnostic test with the blood antibody tests. We’ll be doing this initially at 4 Stop and Shop locations across the state. For those [locations], we’re testing for whether someone currently has the virus, or had been previously exposed,” she said.
“DOH is mailing letters to 5000 random Rhode Islanders across the state inviting them to the Stop and Shop locations in order to get tested,” said Raimondo. “It will always be your choice, but I’m asking you to do it — it’s the right thing for Rhode Island.”