State shares ramped up eligibility timeline; Two new vaccination sites to open this weekend
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – The state unveiled a ramped-up vaccination eligibility timeline at Thursday’s COVID-19 briefing and shared details about new state-run sites that will be opening soon.
“Over the last week, our team has put together an accelerated eligibility timeline to ensure that vaccination appointments will gradually open up to different age groups ahead of April 19,” said Governor Dan McKee during his remarks.
The state is currently working through vaccinating people aged 60 to 64 and 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions. The next group, those 50 to 59, will be eligible for a vaccine in Rhode Island on April 5.
“Roughly a week after that,” said Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, “We anticipate opening eligibility to people who are 40 to 49 years of age on April 12.”
Lastly, those 16 to 39 will be eligible on April 19.
“We know that some people have had frustrating experience trying to get an appointment and not being able to get one,” Dr. Alexander-Scott said.
Due to those frustrations, the state is working to make the registration process easier, creating a pre-registration system using the vaccine interest notification list that can be found here.
“We will send you a notification when an appointment is available for you. This appointment will be for a given day at a given site,” explained Tom McCarthy, executive director of the state’s COVID response.
It was also revealed that more vaccination sites are opening this weekend. One, in Woonsocket, will open on Sunday at the old Sears building. The other, in West Kingston, will open on Saturday at the Schneider Electric building.
Each site will have 400 doses of vaccine. Appointments for those sites will open Friday at 5 p.m. on the state’s portal.
Additionally, several more sites will soon be opening up in parts of the state without vaccination sites currently. Those locations are Westerly, East Providence and Johnston.
“Dr. Alexander Scott and I were on a call with the White House this week and we feel as though the volume and the supply is going to continue to increase. That’s good news,” said Governor McKee.
McKee and Dr. Alexander-Scott sent the White House a letter last week, requesting 50,000 more doses per week. McKee said the state will be able to handle administering 160,000 doses per week starting next week.
Rhode Island is currently getting around 53,000 vaccine doses a week.
RIDOH is keeping an eye on new coronavirus variants, and are estimating that roughly 40% of positive cases in the state are variant cases.
“There is a significant presence of the more contagious strain of COVID-19 in Rhode Island,” said Dr. Alexander-Scott.
It was also shared at Thursday’s briefing that some restrictions on businesses would be eased.
“We’re pleased to increase the outdoor table number of seats permitted from 8 to 10,” said Stefan Pryor, RI Commerce Secretary.
He also announced that self-service seating at places like restaurants, food courts, and ice cream shops would be allowed.
Additionally, gyms and fitness centers may reopen their shower facilities.
“We don’t want to have to slow down the loosening of our restrictions,” said Dr. Alexander-Scott, “And we definitely don’t want to interfere with our goal and focus on having an incredible summer here in Rhode Island the way we are looking forward to. The three keys to getting us to that finish line have not changed. Testing, treatment, and vaccination.”
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