Woonsocket Radio News Room

NORTH SMITHFIELD WEEKLY UPDATE

 

Dear Residents, Businesses, and Community Partners,

 

I hope you are doing well. As we mark almost a year since the first case of COVID-19 in Rhode Island, I want to thank our first responders, town staff, teachers, and community partners for always stepping up to help those in need. We are also thankful for residents doing their part to keep cases low in our community. It has been a difficult year, but there is an end in sight. Until we are all vaccinated, please continue to remain vigilant and safe.

 

Rhode Island’s COVID-19 positivity rate continues to remain low at 2.1% for the week, and 225,551 vaccinations have been administered statewide. 

 

Locally, we are proud to have vaccinated 160 residents 75 years and older. We have 160 more to vaccinate with our allotted amount from the RIDOH.

 

COVID-19 Vaccine

There are several options for Rhode Islanders 65 years of age or older to be vaccinated: 

 

1.     State Sites: Register for a vaccine at the two state sites in Providence and Cranston here: https://www.vaccinateri.org/ or call 844-930-1779.

a.      We will update you as additional locations open in Middletown, Woonsocket, and elsewhere. 

 

2.     Pharmacies: CVS and Walgreens are now accepting online reservations.

 

3.     Register for a Lifespan Clinic: http://bit.ly/LifespanVax

 

If you are unable to leave home to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, or are the healthcare provider or family caregiver of someone who is homebound, please inform RIDOH through the following form: http://bit.ly/homeboundvax.

 

For more information on vaccines, visit: https://covid.ri.gov/vaccination. Sign up for RIDOH’s weekly vaccination newsletter here.

 

COVID-19 Testing

Please consider getting tested on a weekly basis. Rapid and PCR testing is available at various locations throughout the state. A full list of locations is located here. To make an appointment click here.

 

COVID-19 Guidelines 

As a reminder, the state is operating under the following guidelines: 

 

·        Wear a mask when outside of your home, even in the outdoors.

·        Keep your social interactions limited to members of one additional household when indoors, and two additional households when gathering outdoors.

·        Self-isolate whenever possible. Work from home. Shop locally online.

 

Local Reminders

A reminder that there is a special election on Tuesday, March 2nd. For those who are voting by mail, ballots must be received by 8:00 pm on March 2nd. Early/emergency voting is open until March 1st until 4:00pm. 

 

·        Monday March 1st: 8am-4pm

·        Tuesday, March 2nd 7am-8pm

 

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced an exclusive access period for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses with fewer than 20 employees for the next 14 days (starting 2/24). Find out more and apply, here: http://ow.ly/JVqi50DGZrY

 

Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Paul Zwolenski

Town Administrator

 

President Biden is preparing to sign a new foreign aid bill into law. On Tuesday, the Senate passed a 95-billion-dollar emergency foreign aid package, which included funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the Indo-Pacific. The bill also laid the groundwork to ban the social media app TikTok in the U.S.       Columbia University has reached a deal with students protesting the war in Gaza. The pro-Palestinian protesters are calling for the Ivy League New York school to divest from any financial interests with Israel, and have set up a large tent city on school grounds. Columbia on Tuesday set a midnight deadline for protesters to disband. Early this morning, the school said the protesters had agreed to remove some of the tents, to make non-student protesters leave and to bar harassing language among the students, delaying possible police action for 48 hours.        Millions of salaried workers in the U.S. will soon qualify for overtime pay thanks to a new rule from the Biden administration. The rule announced Tuesday by the Department of Labor changes the threshold under which salaried employees become eligible for overtime. The department estimates that an extra four-million workers will qualify for overtime once the rule is implemented in January.        The Food and Drug Administration says the bird flu virus has been detected in some samples of pasteurized milk in the U.S. The FDA made the announcement Tuesday, less than a month after an outbreak of the bird flu was found in herds of dairy cows for the first time.        Ozzy Osbourne has a few words for his former band Black Sabbath amid his solo induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In a post on X, the legendary singer said his solo career has been a much larger part of his life as a whole, so being inducted on his own just feels all the more special. He added "not bad for a guy who was fired from his last band."        The NBA playoffs continued on Tuesday with three more contests. The Minnesota Timberwolves put together a dominant 105-93 win over the Phoenix Suns at the Target Center to take a 2-0 series lead. In the East, the Indiana Pacers evened their series with a 125-108 takedown of the Milwaukee Bucks. Out West, the Dallas Mavericks downed the L.A. Clippers 96-93 in Game Two at Crypto-Dot-Com Arena.        

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