Why COVID-19 is ravaging Rhode Island

DAVID KLEPPER,

AP

January 5, 2021 | 9:56 a.m.

PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) – For a few days in December, Rhode Island was one of the worst places on the planet for new cases of COVID-19 per capita.

Hospitals reached capacity as the rate of new cases surpassed the country, nearly double the rate in neighboring Connecticut. The state record for daily COVID-19 deaths, set in April, has been broken. In the face of the deepening crisis, Governor Gina Raimondo reluctantly reimposed stricter restrictions on businesses.

“I’m surprised we did so badly,” said Dr. Keith Corl, emergency physician and faculty member at Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University last week. “We are all exhausted and we are now talking about staffing more intensive care units.”

The country’s smallest state by region has reported 1,855 pandemic deaths so far, far fewer than many states, but giving Rhode Island the sixth highest COVID-19 death rate in the country. Like other northeastern states, Rhode Island was hit hard when the pandemic began. Cases fell during the summer, but climbed until the fall.

“The state did as good a job as it could. We have to be optimistic now that we have the vaccine on the way, ”said Rhode Islander Donald Ritter while shopping in Providence on Monday. “But that was quite a trick.”

A dense – and ancient – population

Experts who have studied the state’s fight against COVID-19 say it offers lessons for other parts of the country facing the same factors that drove its soaring.

Among them: dense communities; high number of elderly people in nursing homes; an economy dependent on tourism and low-wage workers who cannot work from home; restrictions aimed at reconciling health and economic activity; and the refusal of some to follow advice on masks and social distancing.

“There are a lot of reasons,” Raimondo said last month. “There is no excuse for this. It is not a distinction that we want.

With 1 million people squeezed into 1,200 square miles, Rhode Island’s population density is just behind New Jersey. This concentration creates opportunities for the virus, which spreads more easily between people in close contact.

Many of the state’s poorest residents live in dense neighborhoods in cities like Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls, often in multi-generational households.

These residents often hold jobs that cannot be performed remotely and as a result see higher rates of COVID-19, said Dr Michael Fine, former state health director. Fine now advises Central Falls, a town of 20,000 people that occupies just over 1 square mile.

“They have two or three jobs and have to come to work every day. They get infected at work and go home to these densely populated communities, ”Fine said. “The decisions we made on how to proceed with the lockdown, and the population we have, essentially conspired to make our most densely populated communities sick.

A large number in retirement homes

An aging population also plays a role. Rhode Island has the third highest percentage of residents in the country living in nursing homes. Almost three-quarters of deaths from COVID-19 in the state have been among residents of nursing homes.

A major challenge for nursing homes has been to prevent staff from transmitting the virus. Employees at the 11 facilities operated by Health Concepts Ltd., are now tested twice a week to make sure they do not spread the virus even if they do not have any symptoms, said Kelly Arnold, director of operations at the ‘company.

Arnold said she had more hope now that her residents should be vaccinated later this month. “There must be light at the end of the tunnel.”

The university town factor

While young people are not as likely to get very sick, students have done their part to spread it. Clusters of cases among students were reported this fall at the University of Rhode Island, Johnson & Wales University and Providence College.

Like other states, Rhode Island limited restaurant and guest capacity inside many businesses this spring and temporarily closed bar areas, gyms, and theaters. Stricter rules were reinstated for the first three weeks of December, after the number of cases started to rise.

While doctors like Fine and Corl argue the restrictions haven’t gone far enough, many business owners have expressed concerns about the long-term economic damage to the state’s hotel and tourism industries.

Bob Leonard is the co-owner of Coast Guard House, a beachfront restaurant in Narragansett popular with tourists. He said his company had worked hard to comply with the restrictions and did not believe restaurants were responsible for the recent spike in cases.

“From what I’ve seen, these are people who are at home and let down their guards,” he says.

Irregular distances and wearing of masks

Residents who ignore advice on masks and social distancing also deserve to be blamed, Raimondo said.

The Democratic governor also points to the state’s vigorous testing program as one explanation for the recent surge. Rhode Island has performed more than 2 million tests, more per resident than any other state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More testing means more asymptomatic cases will be identified – cases that could go unnoticed in other states.

But the tests do not fully take into account the increase in deaths and hospitalizations in December, said Dr Ashish Jha, physician and dean of Brown’s School of Public Health. Jha said he believes population density and poverty are more important factors.

“Pandemics are complex. They are not simple and straightforward things, ”Jha said. “But we are learning a lot.”