State will use police, soldiers to stop NYers
Raimondo: State Police, National *uard will stop and question all travelers inbound from virus-stricken New York
PROVI'ENCE – *ov. *ina M. Raimondo on Thursday announced the largest single-day spike in confirmed coronaviruses cases in Rhode Island, with 33 new cases across the state, bringing Rhode Island up to 165 confirmed cases of the virus.
She also announced new travel restrictions for people coming to Rhode Island from
New York – described by the governor as a ³hot spot´ for the virus – mandating any person who has traveled to Rhode Island from New York by any form of transportation to self-quarantine for 14 days. This also applies for anyone who has been in New York over the past 14 days.
³I understand this is an extreme measure. I believe in light of the crisis, in light of the fact that New York City is
a hot spot, their infection rate is skyrocketing, and they are so close to Rhode Island, in my judgment this is the most prudent course of action,” Raimondo said.
As of Thursday afternoon, New York state had 37,258 cases of coronavirus and 385
deaths, according to statistics from The New York Times, far and away the highest totals of any state in the country and surpassing most nations in the world.
0embers of the National *uard will be stationed at 3eter 3an and *reyhound bus stops and the 3rovidence bus terminal and Amtrak train stations, and travelers from New York will be required to check in and provide their contact information. Additionally, Rhode Island 6tate 3olice will be flagging down vehicles with New York license plates as they enter the state.
“This is different. This is unusual. This is radical. I believe it’s necessary to confront the dangers that we’re seeing in the New York City New York metro area and the fact that we are 180 miles from there « If you’re coming to Rhode Island with New York plates, chances are you will be stopped,” Raimondo said.
Rhode Island 6tate 3olice 6uperintendent Col. -ames 0. 0anni noted that the governor’s executive order will
not affect interstate commerce in the state, as 6tate 3olice will only be stopping passenger vehicles with New York plates.
“This is an unprecedented event in our history and I want to ensure the public that Rhode Island 6tate 3olice are engaged to protect public health and public safety,” 0anni said. “We fully realize there’s a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety associated with this crisis and I assure everyone, no matter which state you reside in, all troopers will be professional, polite, and will treat everyone with dignity and respect.”
When a vehicle is stopped by 6tate 3olice, 0anni said, troopers will ask the driver where they are going, their identification and address, contact information, and they will be advised of the executive order and that they must self-quarantine for 14 days while they stay in Rhode Island.
Raimondo said the information collected by the National *uard and 6tate 3olice
will only be used by the Rhode Island 'epartment of Health to track travelers and for contract tracing. It will not be used for police purposes, immigration purposes, or any other reasons, she assured.
Of the 165 cases of coronavirus in Rhode Island, there are 23 hospitalized, nine in the IC8, and six of the nine are intubated, according to Rhode Island 'epartment of Health 'irector Nicole Alexander-6cott.
'uring Thursday’s press briefing, Raimondo said she has been “overrun” with questions about coronavirus testing.
“We need to ramp up our testing, that’s a fact,” the governor said. “In order to meet the demands of the crisis, we need to get to a place where we have a much greater testing capability. Right now we are primarily focusing our testing on high-risk populations and on healthcare workers and first responders. Very quickly, we need to get to a place where we have kind of a ubiquity, a very widely-available testing.”
Raimondo said that her goal was that by this time next week, the state will be able to run 1,000 tests a day with “reasonably rapid results.” As of Thursday, Rhode Island was running at least half that.
“I cannot reopen the economy until we have a testing infrastructure in place « multiple testing sites and swab collection sites around the state and a capacity to run effectively, at scale, reliably, at least 1,000 tests a day,” she said. “6o that’s a key milestone that we have to get to before I can even think about safely reopening the economy.”
6he noted that there are many pieces to the puzzle that are necessary for the state to reach that level of 1,000 daily tests, equating it to baking a cake.
“You can have as much butter as you need, but if you can’t get eggs in the right amount at the same time, you can’t bake your cake,” she said. “That’s a highly simplistic analogy, but in order to
make this work, we need the machines, the re-agents for particular machines, the staff who knows how to use the particular machines with the specific re-agents, the swabs, it’s complicated.”
%ut while there’s an air of uncertainty lingering across Rhode Island, Raimondo urged calm, saying she felt “we have the situation well-managed here in Rhode Island.”
“We’re ahead of this virus in Rhode Island. We are ahead of it. The people of Rhode Island, at this point in time, just take a breath. Take a deep breath, go for a walk outside,” Raimondo said. “This is challenging, it’s a pandemic like we’ve never faced before. We had a system in place, we have a plan, we have goals. We are not seeing the surge of some other states, our hospitals are not overrun, and that’s where we want to stay. We want to stay a step ahead of it.”