PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island’s largest hospital group has received its first 4,200 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine.
Lifespan’s Rhode Island Hospital received about 3,000 doses Tuesday that came on the heels of 200 doses sent to Newport Hospital and 1,000 doses sent to The Miriam Hospital on Monday, Lifespan said in a statement Wednesday.
Lifespan has already received about 6,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, some of which had already been administered to about 4,000 employees as of Wednesday, spokesperson Kathleen Hart said.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine could start as soon as this weekend, she said.
Lifespan is first vaccinating employees at highest risk, including providers and staff who have direct contact with positive patients or with infectious fluids or materials.
Lifespan’s goal is to vaccinate all employees over the next several months.
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POSITIVE TRENDS
Rhode Island’s average positivity rate and average rate of new cases per day are both on the way down, according to COVID Tracking Project statistics.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Rhode Island decreased from just over 9% on Dec. 8 to a little over 6% on Tuesday. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Rhode Island the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test encounters using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island has also fallen over the past two weeks, going from almost 1,309 on Dec. 8 to 850 on Tuesday.
The state Department of Health on Wednesday reported 879 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus from the previous day, bringing the state’s total of known cases on more than 82,000.
The department also reported 26 more deaths for a total of 1,704 virus-related fatalities.
The number of residents in the hospital with the disease as of Monday, the latest day for which the information was available, was 442, up from 440 the prior day.
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HELP FOR DISABLED
Rhode Island has agreed to spend $10 million in federal coronavirus stimulus funds to make sure providers of services to the state’s developmentally disabled population can function well into next year.
State Sen. Louis P. DiPalma told The Providence Journal that the fiscal health of 30 businesses that provide those services is of grave concern.
“What we need to ensure is that when we come out of the pandemic they will still be there,” the Middletown Democrat said.
The estimated 4,000 Rhode Islanders living with intellectual and developmental disabilities are among the populations most vulnerable to the virus, with about 1,200 living in group homes and some with preexisting health conditions.
As of mid-November, 232 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the state.
The providers have had to suspend services or reduce capacity while incurring expenses related to the pandemic.
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