RI Employees With COVID-19 Eligible for Workers’ Comp, “Strike Teams” Announced for Nursing Homes
Friday, April 17, 2020
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced that employees in Rhode Island who contract coronavirus can now be eligible for workers' compensation.
On Friday, the latest data reported by the state showed 13 additional COVID-19 related deaths for 118 fatalities in total.
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“This is an additional benefit on top of [Temporary Disability Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance],” said Raimondo.
“There’s a number of different benefits available if you’ve lost your job or contracted the disease,” said Raimondo.
Nursing Home “Strike Teams”
On Friday, Rhode Island Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott announced that the state is instituting “strike teams” at nursing homes to address the coronavirus crisis.
Across the country, states have already deployed nursing home “strike teams” for over a week and a half — in Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan created strike teams on April 7 -- as well as enacted an order to shut down unsafe facilities.
The goal of the teams, according to Alexander-Scott, is to “deliver swabs to nursing homes, pick up swabs…and have mobile testing units available at hot spots.”
In Rhode Island, questions are emerging about the facility the state has selected to be the state's "specialty nursing home" for those returning to nursing home care after hospitalization.
As GoLocal reported on Friday, the nursing home selected by the Rhode Island Department of Health as the central facility for COVID-19 patients has had 45 violations in 4 years.
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