RI Coronavirus Cases at Schools, Colleges and Nursing Homes Double This Week

Sunday, September 20, 2020

GoLocalProv News Team

 

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Sign posted by landlord on his properties throughout the PC area. Photo: Anthony Sionni

The number of coronavirus cases has doubled in three key categories across the state -- K-12 schools, colleges, and nursing homes -- this week. 

Rhode Island continues to have the 6th highest per capita death rate in the U.S. and the total number of cases is now approaching 1,100 deaths since March — there have been 1,088 to date.

Dr. Michael Fine, the former Rhode Island Director of Health says it is too early to claim this is a second wave, but notes that all of these groupings are seeing significant increases in infection.

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Regarding Providence College’s outbreak, Fine said, “If we see the number of cases increase to 150 to 200 by the middle of the week, then that would suggest we are in some trouble.”

According to Steve Maurano, Vice President at Providence College, the number of cases through Thursday’s reporting had jumped to 139 cases. The school has canceled all in classroom classes.

SEE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DR. FINE BELOW

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RI's K-12 cases jumped to 49 in the first 4 days

K-12 Cases Trending Upward

Rhode Island’s K-12 schools saw cases increase from 19 during the first two days of classes to 49 by Thursday.

The Rhode Island Department of Health cautioned that they are not seeing a clustering of cases.

“There have been 48 cases in K-12 identified since Monday. Of these 48 people, 19 people were in school during their infectious periods. These 19 cases are spread across 13 schools, and in some of the schools where we have seen multiple cases, it is siblings who are sick. We are not seeing large groupings of cases at this point at individual schools,” said RIDOH’s spokesperson Joseph Wendelken.

Governor Gina Raimondo in a mass email announced that rapid testing would be available throughout the state.

"We have tests being administered at 14 sites throughout the state and can accommodate both drive-up appointments or walk-up appointments. Appointments can be scheduled by parents, guardians, teachers, staff members, and students older than 16 years old. Children younger than 16 will need a parent or guardian to schedule the test for them," Raimondo said.

 

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Number of new cases doubled this week at nursing homes

Nursing Homes

Nursing homes have seen the number of cases double in the past week and the number of facilities with cases increased in the same time span. 

Positive cases have jumped to from 35 last reporting period to 70 to 74. What may be more concerning is cases are now reported at 13 different facilities. Bannister House continues to be hit hard with a range of 20 to 24 cases and is now reporting between 10 and 14 deaths.

And, Grandview Center in Cumberland has reported between 15 and 19 cases.

When asked if RIDOH was worried about the upward trend in the number of cases and if the state was considering rolling back Raimondo's recently implemented more liberal standards, Wendelken said, "We are watching the nursing home situation very carefully. Our focus is less on adjusting visitation protocols than ensuring that staff who are sick are not going to work. We have not traced back many cases at all to visitation."

Ten days ago the Rhode Island Health Care Association called on Raimondo to withdraw the state’s recent health care directive that sends hospital patients with COVID-19 into nursing homes.  The directive, which was issued to nursing homes by the Department of Health earlier in September, declared that patients need only be tested once for COVID-19 before heading to a nursing home – a dangerous practice, said the nursing homeowners. 

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a March 17 letter to Raimondo, RIHCA asked the governor to stop moving hospital patients who remained untested for COVID 19 into nursing homes, saying that ignoring this request for weeks, the transfer of a number of hospital residents was responsible for the initial spread of the virus in the homes. It was not until mid-April that the state implemented a policy to test hospital patients twice before allowing their entrance to the nursing home. 

Now the two-test policy is being driven backward. Those hospital patients whose COVID status is unknown can be sent to a nursing home with just one negative test, according to the group.

“This directive sets forth a dangerous policy that is a matter of life and death for our residents. We call on Governor Raimondo to withdraw this directive and put our most vulnerable elderly first,” RIHCA President and CEO Scott Fraser said.  

 

 

 

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