Coronavirus In RI: Reopening Balances Economic, Physical Health

PROVIDENCE, RI —As Gov. Gina Raimondo moves toward a hopeful lifting of the state's stay-at home order and start of a phased-in reopening of the economy May 9, she acknowledged on Tuesday that those steps are part of a delicate balance between protecting the state's economic and physical health.

"Just because we reopen the economy and lift the stay-at-home order doesn't mean that people are going to stop getting sick," she said during his daily news conference. "In fact, more people are probably are going to get sick. We are going to be living with this ... for the next year. We're all going to have to get comfortable with that."

Raimondo added: "our guiding principal through this is that there is a relationship between economic health and physical health. It is much harder to maintain your physical health if your economic health is compromised. If you have 170,000 people filing for unemployment, that's a lot of economic pain."

On Monday, Raimondo unveiled the outline of phased plan to reopen businesses and increase limits on social gatherings, if the data continues to trend in right direction through May 8 when the current stay-at-home order expires. On Tuesday, the state's Department of Health announced 218 new confirmed cases and six new deaths — making it the fourth consecutive day with fewer cases than the previous day.

"We're really holding our own right now," Raimondo said. "Haven't seen much of a decline, which is what we're aiming for, but not much of an incline. So good job. ... Really continue to clamp down (on social distancing). It's really working. It's really continuing to save lives. Every day is important. Everyday matters. We are in a fight to bring our infection rate down.

"If you do, I think I will be able to lift that stay-at-home order on May 9," she added, "which would be exciting for all of us."

The state has reported a total of 7,926 confirmed cases. The six additional deaths — five of which occurred in nursing homes and one in a congregate group setting — bring the total for coronavirus fatalities to 239.Raimondo did announce a series of insurance-related executive orders she was said were aimed at making it less burdensome for physicians to provide care for patients.

They include prohibiting insurance companies from increasing out-of-pocket costs for any prescriptions, or making changes to which prescriptions are covered, through May 27, relaxing primary care referrals through May 27 and eliminating pre-authorizations for treatments through May 27.

She said behavioral health and mental health treatments inside of a network must also be covered "without being second-guessed" through May 27.

"I hope that if you are a physician or provider this allows you to be able to do your job," Raimondo said. "If you are an insurer, I know this is a disruption to your business model. I just want to say thank you to you for partnering with us as we get through this crisis."

Raimondo also announced that licenses and registrations that expire through the state's Department of Motor Vehicles in May will be given a 90-day extension for renewal — as was already done for those expiring in March and April. The DMV office in Cranston remains open on an appointment-only basis.

She said she will be coming out with guidelines "later this week or the beginning of next week" on plans to reopen government offices at the state and town level.

Raimondo reiterated that the reopening of the economy will be slow, and that she is prepared to put the breaks on it at any time in order to prevent a surge in hospitalizations. She also admitted that the reopening process will be difficult on some businesses, such as restaurants, that will be required to limit customers at least through the early stages of the process.

"My heart goes out to you and we're going to do everything we can to get you through it," she said of restaurants looking at potentially being restricted to 25 or 50 percent capacity. "It's a thin margin business, I know that. Having said that it I can't do something that is going to land Rhode Island back in the COVID soup. ... If there are special ways we can support certain industries, like restaurants, through this, we're going to do that."

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