Around New England

Block Island Enacts Shelter-In-Place, Tells Non-Residents To Scram

March 26, 2020

On Block Island, shelter-in-place is in effect.

On Monday, the town council for New Shoreham, the name of the town that encompasses all of Block Island, declared that all non-residents leave the island, as Patch reports. The policy went into effect on Tuesday, March 24.

Those who are left, be it full-time or seasonal residents, are asked to shelter in place. Those residents are urged to not leave the island.

Only essential workers are allowed to commute to and from the island for work. Anyone else who comes to the island who is not there right now must self-quarantine for two weeks.

“Medical capacity on the island is extremely limited. There is no capability to test for the COVID-19 virus on the island,” the Rhode Island Department of Health said in a written statement, according to Patch.

This order is set to stay in effect until at least April 15.

Block Island has about 1,000 year-round residents. It is about 9 miles south of the mainland of Rhode Island, and about 14 miles northeast of the eastern tip of Long Island in New York.