Gov. McKee, RIDOH, announce new COVID-19 response measures on Wednesday
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE)- Gov. Dan McKee and RIDOH announced new COVID-19 response measures during a press conference on Wednesday.
Gov. McKee said that indoor venues with a capacity of over 250 people will be required to enforce a universal mask mandate.
Smaller venues, as well as indoor offices and private businesses will be able to choose from the following:
- An across the board indoor masking requirement,
- An across the board vaccination requirement,
- Or allow individuals to either be masked or show proof or vaccination.
These new measures will go into effect on Monday and will be reviewed in a month.
Rhode Island will distribute 1 million at home rapid tests to cities and towns and another 100,000 to community partners, McKee said
RIDOH will look expand their lab capacities in order to speed up testing results.
The state will also be encouraging schools to adopt the test to stay policy.
The governor encouraged the public to get the COVID-19 booster shot.
“A lot has happened since Thanksgiving, we need to let Rhode Islanders know that the booster is important,” Gov. McKee said.
McKee said that he had a meeting with municipal leaders on Wednesday morning to ask them to continue running vaccination clinics.
The governor also spoke with FEMA to try and get additional staffing for the state’s hospitals suffering from shortages.
