Raimondo set to speak at 1 p.m. after RIDOH reports 269 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths

PROVIDENCE, RI (WLNE) – The Rhode Island Department of Health reported 269 new COVID-19 cases and 7 new deaths on Monday.

That brings Rhode Island’s Cumulative COVID-19 totals to 7,708 cases and 233 deaths.

There are 266 people in Rhode Island that are in the hospital, 81 of which are in the ICU and 56 of those in the ICU are currently on ventilators.

There have been 718 people in Rhode Island that have had to be hospitalized with COVID-19, and 452 of those people have been discharged.

A total of 55,885 COVID-19 tests have been administered in Rhode Island as of Monday.

Gov. Gina Raimondo noted in her briefing Sunday that she is looking forward to lifting her stay-at-home order on May 8.

She discussed the phased approach of a reopening in Monday’s briefing.

“Last week, I discussed 6 indicators for reopening the economy in a phased approach. We are going to stand this economy back up and be more stronger and innovative than we were before this. We need to be slow, methodical, and careful, but we’ll get RI back to work.” Raimondo, said.

Data provided by the RIDOH shows that cases are steady and the state has seemed to be plateauing, according to Raimondo.

“Everyone has taken great steps in contributing to make this happen, but we are not out of the woods yet,” Raimondo said.

Raimondo said, “My goal is to tell you I am lifting the stay at home order 2 weeks from now. Commit to doing everything you can so on May 9, I can say lift the stay-at-home-order. It’s not guaranteed if you do not continue to follow the rules. If you do, we can begin to Reopen RI.”