Raimondo Cautions Residents to View Other States’ Surges as a Warning: A summary of the governor’s June 24 press conference

Governor Gina Raimondo and DOH director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott gave the COVID-19 press briefing today at 1pm.

Today’s data is as follows. DOH reports 73 new COVID cases today; 104 people are still in the hospital. Twenty people are in the ICU and 16 are on ventilators. Six deaths were reported this afternoon. One person was in their 70s, two in their 80s, one in their 90s and two people were over 100 years of age. 

Twin River was announced today as winding down its testing operations in conjunction with CVS Health starting testing this Saturday, June 27. Governor Raimondo reminded folks today it was always meant to be temporary. Without the Twin River site, the state has a daily testing capacity of 5,000 tests, and most days they only hit 4,000. DOH officials are still working on increasing the turnaround time for test results at private labs.

The governor gave a glimmer of announcements today regarding the weekend and next phase. Beaches were crowded this weekend, so Raimondo stated today they would increase beach parking lot capacity to 75% of total capacity, opening up 2,200 spots at state beaches. The governor hopes it will decrease lines and people illegally parking on neighborhood streets in the areas surrounding the beaches. 

Starting in Phase 3, no contact and low contact adult/youth sports will be coming back. The governor will have complete guidance posted online by Monday. She asked games be between stable groups within state and out of state if that area has no travel restrictions. Spectators can attend and should wear masks. Close contact sports, like soccer or football, will not come back during Phase 3. The state expects to make further announcements regarding school sports later this year.

The governor sternly spoke to state residents and the press corp today. Much of her opening remarks were warnings to follow the rules and she also discussed the surges in Texas, Florida and California. Raimondo reminded Rhode Islanders to wear masks, avoid congregating and social distance, and reminded businesses to follow new COVID regulations, lest the Ocean State become the nation’s new hotspot. 

The next COVID press briefing is Friday at 1pm. You can watch it on Capitol TV, Facebook Live or read our livetweets at twitter.com/motifmagri. Our summary of the governor’s comments will be up later that day.