PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Nearly 30,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines will arrive in Rhode Island before the end of month, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said Thursday.
The term-limited Democrat also declared she wouldn’t be President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, dispelling speculation that’s ramped up in recent weeks as Biden forms his Cabinet.
“My focus is right here in Rhode Island,” Raimondo said near the end of her weekly coronavirus briefing. “I’m working 24/7 to keep Rhode Islanders safe and keeping our economy moving, and I have nothing else to add on that topic.”
A look at coronavirus developments in Rhode Island:
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VACCINE DISTRIBUTION
Rhode Island is expected to receive about 10,000 doses of a vaccine developed by Pfizer in the next few weeks, followed by about 19,000 doses of a vaccine by Moderna, Raimondo said.
She said the state, like others, will be prioritizing vaccinating health care workers, first responders and high risk individuals.
Raimondo stressed that vaccine shipments will be trickling into the state over the next few months, meaning Rhode Islanders will need to continue following the state’s coronavirus safety rules for the foreseeable future.
“Help is definitely on the way,” she said. “But we’re a state of a million people. Twenty-nine thousand shots does not go a long way.”
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STATE RESTRICTIONS
Early reports from the state’s two-week economic “pause” imposed Monday are encouraging, Raimondo said.
She said restaurants and bars appear to be following the new rules on their industry, which include reduced capacity limits for in-person dining and shuttering bar-areas to patrons.
Raimondo also said road travel appeared lighter and officials have received no credible reports of large parties.
She said she’s hopeful the restrictions will lead to a decline in COVID-19 cases in the next couple of weeks.
At the same time, Raimondo said, she hasn’t ruled out extending the temporary restrictions, which are currently slated to run through Dec. 13.
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LEGISLATIVE HEARING
A legislative panel asked two health experts Wednesday how to prioritize who gets the coronavirus vaccine and whether the vaccines would be safe.
Former state health Director Dr. Michael Fine, now the chief health strategist for Central Falls, told lawmakers charged with helping oversee the state’s vaccine distribution that he hoped Rhode Island would give higher priority to “densely populated communities, which have been hit particularly hard,” The Providence Journal reported.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, warned that the state is in for a rough six to eight weeks. But he told lawmakers that vaccines are safe.
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VIRUS CASES
State health officials reported nine additional deaths and more than 1,300 positive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
The state Department of Health also said more than 400 people are currently hospitalized with the virus. Rhode Island’s death toll from the virus has now exceeded 1,400, and more than 60,000 cases of the virus have been reported.
The state is struggling with some of the worst COVID-19 numbers in the country.
From Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, one person in every 158 people in Rhode Island was diagnosed with COVID-19, making the state the fifth worst in the nation, according to an Associated Press review of data from Johns Hopkins University.
About 131 people have died in Rhode Island per 100,000 population from COVID-19, making the state the sixth worst in the nation.
The state’s seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate has also risen over the past two weeks, from 5.9% on Nov. 18 to 8.1% on Dec. 2.
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