Raimondo’s Decision To Postpone Reopening Nearly Guarantees Delay of In-Class School

Raimondo’s Decision To Postpone Reopening Nearly Guarantees Delay of In-Class School

Wednesday’s announcement by Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo to delay the move to Phase 4 — the de facto return to near normalcy — may be the death blow for the return to classes on August 31.

As part of Raimondo’s announcement to stay in Phase 3 for another month, she also added another limitation — she dropped the limit on the number of individuals who can be at a social gathering from 25 down to 15.

STAY AHEAD: SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL'S FREE DAILY EMAIL HERE

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

“Based on this data, it’s clear we’re not ready to move forward into another phase, but we don’t need to move back a phase either. As we’ve done all along, we’re taking a targeted, data-driven approach to address the trends we’re seeing. That's why we are extending Phase 3 for another 30 days – through August 28 – with this one change to social gatherings,” said Raimondo.

This extension of Phase 3 runs nearly overlaps with her date of reopening schools on August 31. Her intention announced in June was for students to be back in the classroom before September.

 

Too Much Disease and Failed Testing

Rhode Island’s testing is faltering. The number of tests being conducted on a daily basis has dropped to a daily average of approximately 3,500 per day — far short of Raimondo’s pledge to conduct 10,000 tests per day by the end of August and 20,000 by the end of September.

Not only is testing stalled, but the time delays in getting results are growing.

“As the Governor said today [Wednesday], one of the metrics that must be met in order for schools to reopen is that teachers and students must be able to get test results within 48-72 hours on average,” said the Governor’s press office.

"To your other point, there is significantly less risk of spread in a controlled classroom setting where social distancing and mask-wearing is enforced versus a social gathering where people are mingling freely," Raimondo's office added.

This week Bill Gates was highly critical of the state of testing in the U.S.

“The simplest thing, which has to do with such insanity, is you should not reimburse somebody for getting a test that it takes more than 48 hours to get the result back,” Gates said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Squawk Box. “That test is a complete waste. And to all these numbers about how much we test, the majority is just complete waste.”

Closer to home, one Barrington mother frustrated by the ten-day delay in getting testing results for her daughter said there is “no way” for kids to be in the classroom with these types of delay in test results. Kate Sander said the state needs to dramatically improve the testing system.

But, some indications are that the testing system is getting worse, not better.

On July 17, The RI Department of Health announced, that it “had been made aware by a private laboratory of 113 false-positive COVID-19 test results for Rhode Islanders. This means that these 113 people were told that their results were positive when they were actually negative.”

One of the leading national testing firms — Quest Diagnostics — who is a part of the Rhode Island testing infrastructure says their delay is growing. The company issued guidance on Monday stating, “Demand for COVID-19 molecular diagnostic testing continues to stress testing capacity and drive lengthy turnaround times."

 

Schools

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has already pushed back the start date for Massachusetts schools ten days -- two full weeks -- due to concerns about safety.

In Rhode Island, Raimondo has made it clear she wants kids in classrooms. 

"In fact, you’ll be safer in school than not being in school," said Raimondo at previous press conference. "We’re going to let science guide those decisions, guide us around the virus and around...the needs of our kids to be in school."

While Raimondo continues to push for the return to school for children, former Rhode Island Director of Health Michael Fine warns about the impact to older teachers and staff -- specifically anyone over 50-years-of-age.

"The most important thing we do is educate our kids and the truth is that the risk to kids is very very small for each child.  The risks to people over 50 are real,” said Fine a week ago Friday on GoLocal LIVE.

“And so you know one of the things we can't seem to do is figure out a way to approach this differentially by age,” said Fine.

“I myself am not comfortable thinking about people over 50 in a classroom right now. I'm also not comfortable thinking about kids not in a classroom and so how you merge this is a little unclear to me,” said Fine.

Rhode Island has the 5th highest per capita death rate in the United States. More than 150,000 Americans have died from the virus.