Governor announces new business loan and food service programs

Rhode Island’s number of COVID-19 patients increased by 77 overnight to 566 total, Gov. Gina Raimondo said at her daily briefing on the crisis held Wednesday afternoon, April 1, from the State House.

The 77 new cases, according to Dr. James McDonald, a medical director at the Rhode Island Department of Health who joined the governor Wednesday, range from children to people in their 90s.

The officials also announced two more fatalities overnight, one each in their 50s and 70s, and both had underlying conditions. The number of COVID-19-related deaths in the state has reached 10. Sixty patients are currently hospitalized.

Testing increases
With those figures as a backdrop, Gov. Raimondo said the state as of April 2 will “massively ramped up testing,” increasing capacity from 500 to 1,000 per day. The effort already includes six swabbing sites, six processing labs.

She urged primary care physicians to immediately start making appointments for patients who are in need of testing. The governor noted the tests are to prescribed by doctors only. No one without an appointment will be serviced.

On the subject of procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, the governor said local officials are “scouring the world for critical supplies.” She said the state has purchased some 5 million N95 masks, 3 million surgical masks and hundreds of thousands of other PPE supplies, such as gowns, which are en route. This comes after the state procured roughly 500,000 respiratory masks and a slightly lesser number of surgical masks.

Business notes
Gov. Raimondo announced Rhode Island Commerce in conjunction with Bank Newport has initiated an emergency loan fund in the amount of $2 million, evenly backed by both entities, for small businesses of 10 or fewer employees.

The governor said, in anticipation of the state receiving its share ($1.2 billion) of the $2 trillion federal COVID-19 response stimulus, those businesses first must submit the proper applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA), then reach out to the state.

She termed the loans “a bridge to a bridge” to the federal monies, expecting the size of the local loans to be in the “thousands, not the tens of thousands.” The program is for businesses which she said “can’t wait” and “won’t recover” without the immediate cash infusion.

Gov. Raimondo urged owners to call 401-521-HELP for assistance and also prodded other banks and lending institutions to join in the effort.

• In other business-related news, the governor said the Department of Labor and Training is increasing staff to meet the demand of employees and businesses reaching out for information and assistance.
• Also, Gov. Raimondo noted more than 200 local businesses are making or donating critical supplies and over 50 have offered to retool their operations to manufacture such things as hand sanitizer, gowns and masks.
• Calling it the “new normal,” the governor said her staff is already working on industry by industry measures with new rules, regulations and standards in order for businesses to reopen as quickly as possible. “Right now, we’re working through it so when the time comes we’ll be ready,” she added.

Response teams
Gov. Raimondo spent a good deal of her briefing describing the number of people in government working on the state's COVID-19 response, detailing some of their ongoing efforts and lauding their performance.

She said a “a whole army of people are working around the clock” on all facets of the crisis. The governor said the state is “getting ready for a surge,” adding, “It will be hard, there will be a lot of sick people, more fatalities. It will be tough, but the team is in place working to get us through this as safely as we can.”

• Contact tracing: The governor reiterated her now standard theme that contact tracing for those diagnosed with COVID-19 “will save lives.” She asked all residents to keep a record of their interactions in case they are diagnosed, which could help track others they came into contact with. Noting it should be easy because most people should be staying home, she did say it was important to write down and date when you go to work, go to the grocery store or have been in close interaction with other individuals. The governor said officials are currently working on a more technological-based system so the state’s figure are “more accurate and up-to-date.”
• Quarantining: Gov. Raimondo said in order to reopen the state socially and professionally, testing, tracing and quarantining have to be effective. With that in mind, she is securing locations for the homeless and housing insecure to stay during the crisis. The governor announced a new collaborative to assist those in quarantine especially, a food service program in conjunction with West Warwick-based Roch’s Supermarket called “RIdelivers,” which can be accessed online at http://www.ridelivers.com or by calling 211.
• New hospitals: The governor said the state is currently seeking proper facilities to construct temporary hospitals for upwards of 2,000 beds.
• Modeling: Gov. Raimondo said she is aware of the many sources of statistical analysis, but is not putting a model out to the public until “it’s accurate and ready, and we’re not at that point right now.” She said she hopes sometime next week to share best estimates, but that she expects those figures to show a surge, a steep increase and numbers “that won’t make anyone comfortable.” She reiterated the single most important variable in models is the level of compliance with social distancing, again urging residence to stay inside and/or away from others at distance of six feet or more and to not gather in groups larger than five.