Gov. McKee Issues Mask Mandate For All RI Public Schools

PROVIDENCE, RI — Gov. Dan McKee issued an executive order requiring masks in all Rhode Island public schools, he said during a news conference Thursday.

"Children under the age of 12 cannot get vaccinated," McKee said. "That's why masking is critical in schools. It buys us a time until more children become eligible for vaccination, so we can continue to build on our best in the nation progress on getting shots in the arms. Until we can vaccinate more students, we need all students in masks."

The decision comes after McKee initially rejected issuing a statewide mask mandate, a position the governor had maintained as recently as Tuesday. McKee at first wanted to leave the decision up to individual school districts.

"Anybody who has been watching each time you saw a school district adopt a mask mandate, we were getting closer and closer to it," McKee said responding to a question of why now was the right time to implement a mandate. "We just needed patience to watch it all roll out. "We believe it's a good time to finalize that work that's been happening over the last several weeks."

Public Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott also reiterated the importance of masks, because it allows schools to focus on other mitigation measures like testing, vaccination, treatment, ventilation, spacing and screening.

"The public health guidance on masks in schools is crystal clear," Alexander-Scott said. "Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in schools need to be wearing masks."

McKee's decision also came after the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education voted to order the state Department of Education (RIDE) not to approve any district's back-to-school plans, unless they include mask mandates. The vote happened despite Anthony Cottone, a RIDE lawyer, telling the council the department doesn't have the authority to issue a statewide mask mandate. That authority belonged to the Legislature by statue or Gov. Dan McKee via executive order.

McKee also urged the General Assembly to reconvene immediately to extend his emergency powers, which he says were limited during the last session. He said the assembly might not reconvene until 2022, so he'd like to see that happen faster. The governor also he will sign a new declaration of emergency specifically for targeting the delta variant.

Vaccines

As of Thursday afternoon, there are 182,500 eligible Rhode Islanders who haven't been vaccinated for COVID-19. McKee said this number needs to go down, though he did commend the state's vaccine rollout. As of Thursday, more than 70 percent of state residents have received at least one vaccine dose, the governor said.

"We know our best tool to combat COVID-19 and the delta variant is the vaccine," McKee said. "It is the number one thing we can do to prevent COVID-related deaths."

To help get more people vaccinated, especially those in schools, local schools and community centers throughout the state are holding vaccine clinics. More than 100 back-to-school COVID-19 vaccine clinics will be held across the state between now and mid-September.

See a full list of vaccine clinics: RI Holding Back-To-School, Community Vaccine Clinics

McKee said more than 90 percent of Rhode Island teachers and related staff are already vaccinated, and the goal of the clinics is to have all eligible students hit that same metric.

Other school measures

Despite the mask mandate, one COVID-19 restriction was lessened in schools.

Alexander-Scott said students exposed to a classmate who tests positive for the coronavirus will no longer have to quarantine, as long as both students were masked and there was at least 3 feet of distance between them.

Preparing for a delta variant surge

Tom McCarthy, the state's COVID-19 response czar, said state officials are preparing to potentially reopen the field hospital at Sockanosset Cross Road in Cranston. The Cranston field hospital, as well as one at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, closed in February.

McCarthy said reopening the field hospital may be necessary, depending on how large a predicted delta variant surge is this fall.

"We're not at a point where we need to utilize this site yet, but it's an enormously complex operation to get an alternative hospital site up and running," McCarthy said. "We want to make sure, like we have throughout the response, we're doing everything we can to be prepared for any eventuality."

COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the state are less than a fifth what they were at their peak in December, but they have increased rapidly over the last month. On July 17, there were 22 hospitalized patients, compared to 95, as of Tuesday.