State to Close Testing Facility at Twin River, Announces New Guidelines for Beaches, Sports
Thursday, June 25, 2020
The State of Rhode Island has announced a significant number of policy changes relating to the effort to respond to the coronavirus.
First, the state has said that this Saturday, June 27, will be the last day of testing at the Twin River site with CVS.
The state claims that CVS’ 10 new drive-through testing sites, which were announced last month, “already more than offset the testing that was being done at Twin River," with the drive-through program able to run 500 tests a day.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe state is averaging less than 4,000 tests per day. Governor Gina Raimondo proclaimed that the state will be testing 20,000 a day by the end of September.
Beaches:
Raimondo says that the state will expand parking at the beaches.
“This weekend we’re going to increase parking at our state beaches to 75% capacity, which will immediately add more than 2,200 additional parking spaces," she said. "We also want to encourage visitors to buy beach passes online so you can enter through express lane at most beaches. This will cut down on in-person interactions, reduce traffic backups and cut down on tie-ups at parking entrances.”
The state says it will have an online tool to check parking availability.
Go to www.riparks.com/beachpass to check on parking lot status, and then plan accordingly.
Sports:
Raimondo also spoke to sports in Phase 3, which is set to begin next week.
"In Phase 3, we’re going to be allowing no-contact and low-contact sports games to be played between stable groups with no limit on overall group size," said Raimondo. "Having a stable group means you have the same players and coaches together over the course of the summer. No-contact and low-contact sports include things like baseball, softball, tennis and golf. Games can be played between teams within Rhode Island as well as outside of Rhode Island, provided that there isn’t a stay-at-home order or other travel restrictions in that state.”
"We are still strongly discouraging close contact sport games like basketball, football and soccer. Youth playing these sports should stick to practices, drills, and scrimmages," Raimondo.
And she announced, "In Phase 3, we’ll also be allowing spectators at games. We recommend no more than 2 spectators per player, and spectators will be required to wear masks. We’ll still be encouraging players to wear masks when practical, but masks are not required to be worn when players are engaged in active play within a stable group or are maintaining 6 feet of distance."
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