It looks like June may bring a return to something like normalcy in Rhode Island.  As WJAR reports:

Starting May 7, mask wearing guidance will change from required to recommended outdoors within 3 feet, but still required indoors. Capacity limits will be raised to 80% across the board the same day, but with 3-foot spacing and no standing bar service.

All capacity limits will be lifted in Rhode Island on May 28, with the 3-foot spacing requirement remining in place. On that date, bars will be able to resume standing service and take down plexiglass barriers.

Policy wonks (ahem) may find interesting the status of emergency orders.  Can Governor Daniel McKee maintain his emergency superpowers while acknowledging that there is no present emergency?  And if he allows them to expire, what will be the threshold for resuming them?  These are questions that the citizens of a healthy democracy would already be asking themselves and debating.

In the meantime, it would be nice if the director of the state’s Department of Health would make statements founded in science:

“Every day you don’t get vaccinated, your risk of getting COVID-19 gets higher and higher,” [Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott] said.

That’s just not how viruses work.  Every day, as the number of people who have either had COVID or been vaccinated goes up, the likelihood that somebody who is in neither category will encounter the virus goes down.  It’s not like some floating demon who spots people who are still vulnerable to its infection.