[Summit] Gov. Raimondo's message & chart: Preparing to pause, why, when and how [Covid News no. 401]

[David Kolsky]

   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Gina Raimondo <communications at governor.ri.gov>To:Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020, 4:46:04 PM ESTSubject: Preparing to pause
  
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| Hi David,
Last week, we announced a series of new restrictions that will go into effect on Monday, November 30, as part of a two-week pause to reduce the strain on our hospitals and healthcare workers. If you missed that announcement, you can watch this video for a rundown of the new measures.
In order to set Rhode Island up for success during this pause and prevent the need for a longer or more severe lockdown, it’s critical that we all be safe over Thanksgiving – and that means only having dinner with the people you live with. While the new social gathering limit takes effect immediately, the pause will start a week from today – a decision driven primarily by five factors:
1. Time to prepare. Giving businesses more than a week to prepare will help them handle this pause in a way that works best for themselves and their employees. That means giving them time to figure out shifts and staffing needs, as well as an opportunity to work through their existing inventory to avoid unnecessary food waste.
2. Measuring the efficacy of these interventions. Because of Thanksgiving, people will be changing from their normal routines this week, spending less time in their offices or in school and more time at home. Including this week in the pause would likely skew the data on the effectiveness of these measures.
3. Limiting post-Thanksgiving spread. If Rhode Islanders choose to ignore our guidance this week and hold in-person Thanksgiving gatherings with those outside their household, it will lead to increased spread in the next two weeks. Beginning this two-week pause next Monday will help mitigate those impacts.
4. Avoiding overwhelming our hospitals. We’ve looked at extensive modeling of different options, and two things became clear. First, we need the pause within the next four weeks if we’re going to keep hospitalizations manageable through January. And second, the effect of the pause on our hospitalization rate will be roughly the same no matter when it's implemented during that period. If we all take the pause seriously between November 30 and December 13, we can avoid overwhelming our hospitals.
5. Providing assistance to our businesses. Businesses throughout our state and across the world have struggled during this crisis. It’s our hope that this two-week pause will allow us to avoid a longer and more severe lockdown that would be devastating for businesses. That said, we know this pause isn’t easy, and we’ll have more announcements this week about financial assistance for impacted businesses.
As with every part of our COVID-19 response, this process will be data-driven. We will be closely tracking behavioral data – traffic data, public mobility data, restaurant reservation data, enforcement data – to ensure that these restrictions have the necessary effect.
It won't be easy, but if we all hold fast during the two-week pause, we can spare our already-exhausted healthcare heroes and save the lives of our fellow Rhode Islanders.
We're all in this together.
-Gina RaimondoGovernor
P.S.: Information is our greatest weapon in the fight against COVID-19. If you or someone you know wants to sign up to receive these emails, you can use this link. |

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|  Governor's Office | 82 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02903  |
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