♪♪ ♪♪ >> Even if you don't have a trained eye, you know Newport is special.

>> In friendly Newport, Rhode Island, a Democratic city, the welcome is strictly nonpartisan.

>> We are a destination place.

>> Would you believe that volley?

What a final we've witnessed here today.

>> Our season runs from approximately April to October.

And then, of course, in the summer, 8 to 10 weeks, it's crowded on our beaches.

Which is good.

>> In the summertime, you get to kind of be part of the tourist population that's down here and enjoy the shopping, which is always my favorite.

>> You mention Newport, Rhode Island, to someone, they think America's Cup.

>> You spell "fun" W-I-N. >> We have more pro sailors per capita than any place on the planet.

It's so important to our community.

>> The Ocean Race goes around the planet.

This is a Super Bowl-type of event, and the reason The Ocean Race wants to come here is because they feel like the town embraces the race.

>> The mansions, really what we call the houses and cottages of the turn of the century, those obviously are a huge economic engine for the city.

>> You start asking people now around the country what they think about when they think about Newport, they think about music.

That's a pretty cool claim to fame for a small, little city in the smallest state in the Union, to be the epicenter, in some respects, of music.

>> Louis, the city is yours.

>> And we were America's first festivals.

This is where it all started.

>> But we're also a community and we're a tight-knit community.

It's our home and we're protective of it.

>> Newport is home to a lot of families.

Been here for generations.

They all stay here for a reason.

Because it's a fantastic place to live, it's a fantastic place to raise your family.

[ Cheering ] >> Newport, Rhode Island, is a historical city.

>> The past is so present here on the streets, more historic fabric than any other city in America.

>> William Vernon House during the American Revolution.

Rochambeau's headquarters.

George Washington actually slept in this house.

>> 300 years-plus of Newport history.

It's always been a place for free thinkers.

The ethos of Newport have been art, science, architects.

The separation of church and state happened here.

♪♪ >> The new coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, has killed almost 500 people and prompted the Chinese government to impose severe travel restrictions within the country.

>> The leader of the World Health Organization said Monday that the deadly coronavirus has gained a foothold in so many countries that the threat of a pandemic has become, in his words, very real.

>> Around March, we started realizing that this was turning into a pandemic.

It seemed as though it was far away, and then suddenly, it became very up close.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> I was at a friend's house downtown, and I got a call that the governor wanted to speak to the mayors and managers within the next 20 minutes, and it's an emergency.

>> My cabinet and I, the whole administration, in concert with the federal government, the CDC and the FDA.

We have been preparing for weeks for this eventuality, and we have an excellent plan in place.

>> March 2nd.

That was the day when we all kind of said, you know, we really need to coordinate our efforts statewide to make this happen.

>> The risk here in Rhode Island at this point is low.

There is no need for panic.

There's no need to be frightened.

>> At the same time, you could see the infection rate spreading.

And I knew that we were really in for it.

And it was probably going to be coming our way.

>> For the first few weeks.

It was quiet 'cause it's new.

What's going on?

No one knows who's going to get sick, when they're going to get sick.

It was scary.

>> High school students in a nearby location had gone on a field trip over to Europe, and when they returned, there were two people that were diagnosed positive with COVID-19.

It started to become very real.

>> As I stand here today, as many of you know, we're currently up to five cases of coronavirus in Rhode Island residents.

>> On March 13th, the schools were shut down.

>> Schools in Rhode Island have been ordered by Governor Gina Raimondo to close next week.

>> We sent the kids home with all the technology and everything thinking, like, okay, this is really good.

You know, we're good.

And then it turned into it's going to be a month.

And we're like, okay, now you're a distance learning teacher.

What does that even mean?

And then what about the parents?

Oh, my gosh, they don't know how to log their kids in.

I mean, what a huge learning curve for the whole community.

>> After I think about a month of being home, they finally just said that we're out of school for the rest of the year and it would be fully virtual.

>> In Newport, Salve Regina University said, quote, "it continues to be the university's recommendation that all Salve students return to their permanent residences through the end of the semester."

>> We got the email saying that Salve was not going to be coming back for two weeks after break.

Break was being extended.

The whole world felt like everything was turning upside down.

>> Avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people.

Avoid discretionary travel.

And avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts.

>> This city was trying to decide whether or not the parade was going to happen.

And in the same week, you know, the NHL season got canceled, the NBA season got canceled.

And in just 48 hours, you know, everything was off.

Overnight, just everything.

You couldn't get anything done.

>> Started to cry.

>> I said, "Uh-oh."

And I called first thing in the morning and said, "We can't have that parade."

>> "Eyewitness News" reporter Shiina LoSciuto joins us now live from Newport with the latest there.

>> Well, I'm sure you guys know, but this is a huge deal to people here in Newport, canceling the parade for the first time in the city's history.

>> St. Patrick's Day Parade is a big event in Newport, one of the biggest events that we have.

It's important because of the time that it normally falls in March helps all the bars, restaurants, and other businesses to get by.

It brings a big influx of people and it's at a time when it's not very busy in town.

The hotels pack up, the bars and the restaurants pack up, and some of the businesses make out, as well.

>> I know this is difficult.

I've heard from many of you that this is a terrible thing to do, to essentially close down all parties, all bars, and all parades and gatherings on St. Patrick's Day, especially those of you who own pubs and bars.

It's incredibly painful, and we will figure out a way in the months to come to help you make up that lost business.

>> In the first couple, of months we were worried.

People kind of froze.

>> I'm announcing that, effective tomorrow, all dine in food and beverage services at all bars, coffee shops, cafes are being ordered to close.

>> Governor came on and said that she was shutting down restaurants.

And that's really when, you know, panic kind of started to set in for us.

Just the unknown of, you know, never heard of anything happening like that.

I've been doing this for 25 years, so it was shocking.

>> On March 16th is the day that we closed the store.

And it was super scary.

>> No staff in the offices.

No customers in the museum or at the tennis club.

That was a bit of a shock to the system.

>> The Preservation Society, from an economic perspective, in Newport is really important.

We've had to close down most of our houses, but for two, The Elms and The Breakers.

>> What lingers with me is the look on my employees' faces that day that I told them that we were closing, and... And that'll bother me for a while.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Unfortunately, I need to begin today's press conference on a sober note by reporting our first two deaths here in the state of Rhode Island on account of coronavirus.

>> I had COVID, and as one of my employees described it today, I think it was apropos, it's like getting hit by a truck.

>> I lost my taste and my sense of smell, but my whole household had COVID.

My mom had it worse than any of us in the house.

And then, my aunt lives right behind me.

Her entire home had it, too.

I really get really sick.

My oxygen get in the 90s.

It's terrible.

It's terrible.

>> One of the biggest things you can imagine that we weren't sure of is, were we going to get a tsunami of patients that were becoming sick?

And that was the biggest fear, quite frankly.

Would the number of people who got sick with this virus, on top of people that get sick with everything else unrelated to this virus, would that quickly overwhelm our hospitals, and would it quickly overwhelm the health care system?

>> Because of COVID, elective surgeries were turned off, so there was a couple of months where I wanted to do something, I wanted to help, and the need wasn't orthopedic surgery.

It was the delivery of health care to COVID patients.

>> Being at Newport Hospital, we have 129 licensed beds and we have an ICU that's only about six beds during normal operations.

So it wouldn't take much.

Really, quite frankly, one big nursing home outbreak could really overwhelm our hospital pretty quickly.

>> More than 3,600 deaths from COVID-19 in this country are believed to be linked with nursing homes and assisted living centers.

That death toll has shot up in the past two weeks, and the number is probably an undercount.

>> We had to identify space in our nursing home where we could isolate people should they become positive.

All new admissions that come into the nursing home have to quarantine for 14 days.

>> I remember vividly the conversation with the Department of Health and asking them the question, "What do we do?"

The response was, "You're all essential health care workers.

That's how we classify you.

You can keep going if you feel so inclined."

And we all got together and we said, this is when Newport needs us and we're going to stay and we're going to get it done.

>> Frontline staff are just exhausted.

And the challenge is that the people that are working right now are significant, smaller number because of the fact that some people have been exposed, some people have COVID, some people's family members have COVID, they have to be on quarantine and they can't come to work.

The bench gets smaller and smaller, so the people that remain on the bench are the ones that keep coming in every single day, and they're getting burnt to a crisp.

♪♪ >> I am issuing a stay at home order for all people in Rhode Island.

If you're not getting food, getting medicine, getting gas, going to work, you need to be staying home.

♪♪ In addition to the stay at home order, I'm also issuing the following orders effective immediately.

All gatherings of more than five people are banned.

Starting immediately, any person coming to Rhode Island by any mode of transportation after visiting any the other state in the country is directed to self-quarantine for 14 days.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> This COVID pandemic was going to have a huge economic impact on the city.

It became apparent that it was going to affect our season.

Things were shutting down.

People weren't coming.

The year-round population in Newport is about 24,000 people.

And on any given weekend, there could be 50,000 tourists in town in the summer.

That's when people come to Newport, and that's when we're outside enjoying the beauty of the city.

>> We are closing the beaches and the parks.

They will be officially closed and there will be barriers at the entrances.

>> The income fell completely away.

We're coming into our heavy season.

What are we going to run at for the year?

Can we run this company at 75% of gross from the previous year?

Well, to do that, you got to cut a lot of overhead.

So we had to make some tough decisions.

We had to lay some people off.

You start wondering, well, 75%.

No way we're going to hit 75%.

And then, maybe it's 60, maybe it's 50.

It got to a point that we didn't know what we were going to get.

>> You save all summer long to get through January, February.

You're scraping by for two months to get to St. Patrick's Day.

And then, St. Patrick's Day was basically just a normal Saturday instead of one of the biggest days of the year.

Now it's April and my lease is coming up.

I can't afford it.

>> It's such a difficult time right now for Rhode Islanders.

So, so many people are unemployed.

So many of the people who are unemployed are folks who live paycheck to paycheck as it is.

Today, 8:00 this morning, unemployment insurance is now available to essentially everyone in Rhode Island.

We've received over 100,000 claims.

>> Initially, we laid off everyone.

Everyone was laid off.

All, in that time of the year, our normal workforce would be about 32 people.

>> We laid off over a thousand employees, including myself, and we tried to, as much as possible, hunker down and reduce expenses.

There's only so much you could do.

>> We've seen lots of repercussions from this.

Right now, we have about 130 people on staff from more than 300.

>> Not only did it kind of put me at a standstill, but I had guys that were gearing up for the summertime and springtime, when fishing really starts to pick up momentum.

And I had to tell them that, you know, they were also going to be out of work until I could figure out what to do here, which really didn't go over well for all of them.

>> The fishermen aren't going out.

You're not going to get that seafood.

Our main supplier is Sysco.

Then they would come through without this or that.

>> Not just Sysco, but every food distributor was dealing with product that they would normally be selling, and they were no longer able to sell it.

So in certain cases, we were able to freeze product without suffering a loss.

We started looking at donating it to shelters or any organization that was in need, which a lot of them were.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> The thing I tell everybody who doesn't know Newport very well, many of them understand sort of the lifestyles of the rich and famous from the Gilded Age, but I don't think there's a great appreciation for how diverse Newport is.

That is something that people from outside of this community would never have a clue of, because they come here typically during the summer and see a teeming population of other tourists who come from means.

>> North end of Newport is the area of Newport where predominantly Black, indigenous, and people of color reside.

It's the north side.

People have lost jobs.

That's been the biggest thing, people losing their income.

For the North End, most people that live here are already struggling with the 2 or 3 jobs that they were already working.

>> I was sick for three weeks.

I lose my job, one of my jobs, I lose it because I had COVID, so somebody has to replace me.

So, thanks.

Bye.

>> Economically, COVID has really, really swung the hammer and landed it directly on the North End.

♪♪ >> The school district is about 2,000-plus students.

70% of our population qualifies for free or reduced lunch.

Newport right away went into that mode of starting to make sure we had meals available around town, working with our community partners for all our families.

>> And we said, "All right, what are we going to do here?

Now people are looking for food.

They're not leaving their house.

How do we accommodate them?"

That's when things started changing.

>> We've seen a significant increase in the need during the pandemic.

It really skyrocketed up during the months of March, April, and May.

We saw a lot of people come for the first time ever, about 1,200 new clients to the center who had never used a food pantry before.

>> We created a committee, a team to just work on food distribution, and our job was going up to the community food bank, picking up supplies, and bringing them back down here, storing them and getting them out.

>> Before COVID, I think we were about at 40 or 50 people, now up to 60.

There's even one week where there was 80 people who've come to our Five-Star Souper Kitchen.

We've provided food for over 40 years for anybody who's hungry.

>> We're serving between 50 and 80 people a week.

We always have salad.

Miss Pauline makes soup every week, homemade soup that she donates.

>> It's not about just giving somebody something to eat.

It's about giving a quality meal.

And that's what we try to do here.

And I want to be a part of that.

>> Hey, Cheryl.

Hey, Cheryl girl.

So I just retired recently, and you know, this is my hometown.

You know, I live here.

It's my hometown.

My dad, my mom, you know, they all lived here.

>> I've been working in restaurants for the time I've been here.

I cook in both places where I work.

I've been out of work for almost like six months.

>> Newport is a town with a lot of restaurants, with a lot of hospitality, so our community is the hard workers over there.

>> It's really difficult for us for take care utilities, pay rent, pay bills.

>> People desperate because they lose their job, they shut down everything, and they live day by day.

If they don't work, they don't get enough money to pay rent and get money for food.

>> The Spanish-speaking community here at St. Joseph's is really made up of those workers that are in restaurants, in housekeeping and all of these different positions where they're truly affected by COVID.

Some families have 10 family members living in one home.

And what happens is it's not just affecting that one person, but the others in the house.

And, so, when they can't work, they don't have money and they don't have food.

>> We've been working in our cars and we've been working in parking lots because that's where we go and meet people.

We set up food distributions in parking lots, or we're driving to their homes.

Yolanda gets knocks on her door 24/7, phone calls 24/7.

And, so, it's jump in the car and go.

And that's what it's been like.

>> We reached out to the families to ask them how they were doing, what kind of needs they have.

The families shared they needed meals.

They were, many of them, either underemployed or unemployed due to COVID.

And on top of that, they had their kids with them all day, distance learning, remote learning.

Whereas before, those children would come to the club, we would feed them.

We would help them with their homework.

So a lot of the burden got shifted to the families and they really struggled with it.

>> Now we have parents who are torn between going back to work and having to put their children back into school or back into daycare and, you know, raise the risk of them contracting COVID.

>> Families we serve are all working families, but none of them work in positions that they can work remotely.

So, since they can't work from home, they're working, you know, running a register.

They're working as CNAs in hospital, medical settings.

They all have to go to work.

The center is providing vital child care so that they can perform what are essential positions.

They may not be highly paid, but they sure are essential.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> I have had my cosmetology license since I graduated high school in 2010.

I do haircuts, styling, color.

I went from working five days a week to, you know, down one day a week and staying home all week with the kids to do distance learning.

>> If someone has a sniffle, you have to pick them up, and then they're home, and then they're online learning for like until you get a COVID test.

So trying to maintain my mental state, that has not been easy.

>> We have a 3 year old and we were having our second child, so we were just stuck inside the house not being able to do anything.

And any mother of a 3 year old knows what that means.

>> My daughter is 7 years old.

When I got COVID, I needed to isolate myself in the room.

However, I needed to go to the kitchen to cook for her.

She couldn't understand why she couldn't be with me, hug me, or play.

I was on the phone with a client, and I saw my daughter run into the street and almost get hit by a car.

That's when I thought, oh, my goodness, this is not working.

This is not sustainable.

This is bad.

♪♪ >> I have asthma.

So, like, if I catch COVID, I'm at a higher risk.

I'm in grade eight.

I'm not able to see any of my friends.

It's hard to wake up every morning to, like, get on the computer, stay on it for seven hours, and then after, since I have extracurriculars, I have to be on the computer for another, like, three more hours.

>> It's hard to keep focus all the time.

I've definitely been slacking off a little bit with the distance learning.

I mean, it definitely sucks.

I'm missing prom, missing our senior night, all our games with fans and all that.

>> There are days where I just get really frustrated, where I'm, like, the closest thing to any sort of senior year I'll get was my sophomore year of high school because my last two years have just been from my house.

>> In orchestra this year, it's completely different because we can't have a room full of people even playing.

Instead, we just have class where three of us that show up to school that aren't virtual sit socially distanced.

We don't play our instruments at all this year.

We don't play at all.

>> Being a young person living during COVID-19, it's been very hard.

I had to watch freshmen come in and not even get a full first year of a college experience because they got sent home before the daffodils could even bloom on the cliff walk.

It's just those little things.

Our generation is experiencing a massive sense of loss and grief right now.

So I think that's just going to be really hard.

>> A lot of these children started their new year during the pandemic, so they've never met their classmates in person.

I mean, in one hand, yes, we're grateful for the technology.

But the kids at this age, developmentally, they want to socialize, they want to engage with extracurricular activities.

This is who they are.

>> My job has just changed a lot since COVID, so we lost a lot of the personal connection with the kids.

>> No one is able to meet, like, my baby for the first couple of months.

I'm just, like, really emotional.

You didn't know if... You didn't want, you know, the baby to get sick.

You didn't want anyone to come in.

We didn't really know too much about it.

>> People are in the house.

They're bored or stressed out or whatever the case may be.

So we started to get a little more domestic situations.

>> Due to, you know, kids being isolated in homes and families being at home, there's been an increase in some child abuse, domestic violence, increase in anxiety.

>> The antithesis of recovery is isolation.

>> During the pandemic we sheltered twice as many people as we had the year before, so we definitely saw an increase as compared to the prior year.

It has felt, for us, like a crisis on top of a crisis.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Wear a non-surgical mask when you're out.

That's the new recommendation from the CDC to try and slow the spread of coronavirus.

>> You know, when it first started, there were signs that said, "Please wear a mask."

And please wear a mask means you don't have to if you don't want to.

So most people that were down on the wharf were not wearing masks.

>> Here in Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo has issued an order now requiring workers at many businesses to wear masks.

>> I'm also sure many of you are saying, "I'm not going to do that.

That's weird.

It feels funny, I look stupid, I don't know if it helps anyway."

And to you, I am saying you have to do this.

You have to do it because it's going to protect everybody else in Rhode Island.

>> The community started rising up, they started asking for more from the city to really ensure that whatever tourists were here, that they were told to wear masks, they were social distancing.

>> We want people to do the right thing, but we also are very much aware how, if you handle something with too much force, people tend to want to pull back and it turns into a bigger issue.

>> I should be able to freely walk down the street without a mask if I want to.

It's ridiculous.

I shouldn't have to do it.

I never did it, but they did out of fear.

>> Some people were quite angry that they had to wear masks, and they were a little bit not nice.

>> President Donald Trump making clear the guidelines are voluntary and that he would not wear a mask.

>> It's been a little scary with this, you know.

You just don't know where you can go, what you can do, even who you can talk to, whether or not -- You worry about whether or not friends have come in contact with other people that might have had it that's asymptomatic.

And it's just a very frightening time right now.

>> We weren't comfortable being open.

Most of the guests would wear their masks.

You'd have the guests that wouldn't wear their masks.

People were coming from states that were not supposed to be coming.

Not everyone's going to follow the rules.

>> Social gatherings are too large and folks aren't wearing their masks.

If you're doing this, I need you to knock it off.

>> Science is subjective.

So you could tell me one science thing, he could tell me another science thing.

I'm done.

I'm out.

All that matters is freedom.

Stop doing emotional blackmail by saying people die to control the masses.

That's what is going on here -- emotional blackmail.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> My mom died.

♪♪ She was 90, in a nursing home, and we had to stop visiting her.

So it was extremely difficult to stop...

But we were able to see her that week she passed away.

I think she knew we were there.

>> The families, when their loved one dies, their loved one has been in the hospital, so they've been maybe haven't seen them.

It's a tough process to grieve, and they can't even gather with their loved ones because we can't have any public wakes.

It was -- It's isolating.

>> This particular church, Trinity, was constructed in 1725 and consecrated in 1726.

>> For all your goodness and loving kindness, to us and to all you have made.

>> There is, you know, there's grief to work out and to manage.

Meet people over the telephone.

I'm conducting a Bible study by Zoom.

>> Yours is the glory to ages of ages.

Amen.

♪♪ >> This church, Channing Memorial Church is like most churches.

They are having to find new ways, new creative ways to be able to get people involved.

The first adjustment was to take the service virtual.

We still do our chiming on Sunday morning and people come here and social distance, but they come here to listen to the chimes and to shout at each other and wave.

So they're still keeping up that way with the feeling of being connected.

>> We're in Newport, Rhode Island, at the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue building in the United States.

1763 this building was dedicated.

We stopped having services in March.

We did not have any services in here since.

And of course, we moved to the electronic world pre-Shabbat services because, generally, we don't use electronics on the Shabbat.

So that made it a little bit of a conflict and challenge for us.

>> Glory to God.

Hallelujah!

Amen.

We thank God and He's faithful.

Hallelujah.

He does want to fill you.

People can call in.

We have a call number that people can call to listen.

They can connect to us through Zoom.

We have a Zoom link.

We have Facebook Live.

They could watch it also on our website.

The church is still here.

The doors are just not open.

[ Indistinct singing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ >> I can't breathe, man!

>> Get off of his neck!

>> Don't kneel on him!

>> In the midst of our country dealing with this pandemic, we've also been dealing with a lot of social justice issues regarding the death and murder of George Floyd.

A lot of change.

When it comes to myself as a woman of color and a lot of my friends who are people of color and allies, this has made us a lot more tired and angry and, I think, confused.

>> [ Shouts ] >> It's been a daily struggle for all of us, just trying to navigate a new normal with COVID, as well as a new normal with everything else.

>> Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

>> The kids in the neighborhood came up to us and was like, "Why don't we have our own protests?"

I was like, "Actually, we have the time to do it so we could do it."

So COVID did give us time.

We were getting so many messages from lawmakers, police.

At first, they wanted us to start with the protest here and walk that way, which I was not for, because we're just walking through our community.

Like, we already know Black lives matter because that's who lives here.

>> Right here in Newport, Rhode Island, our voices are being heard by saying, "Black Lives Matter!"

>> Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

[ Rhythmic clapping, chanting ] >> It's time to change.

It really is.

>> According to a survey conducted in January, the number of unsheltered Rhode Islanders doubled since the beginning of 2019 to about 120.

We're told COVID-19 has more than likely spiked that number a bit for various reasons.

>> The Housing Hotline in itself is to assist people with housing.

People were losing the places they lived at because their incomes dropped dramatically.

The numbers are up there, 200 or more.

In the 43 years we've been doing this, Newport just opened my eyes up to community.

People would come and say, "What do you need?"

♪♪ >> It's becoming more and more expensive to build a new house or do a home improvement project because the price of building materials keeps going up.

>> Everybody right now with COVID is doing home renovations.

They'll call and ask, "Hey, can you come and give me a hand?

Can you guide me in the right direction?"

>> Every single commodity that you build with is through the roof.

It's hard to get appliances now.

Window lead times are weeks and months because manufacturing has been hit.

It's a boom time, but it's probably the most difficult time to find labor and materials.

♪♪ >> Architecture has always been central to Newport, but now it's become one of the primary economic drivers to Newport, drawing people here.

In a way, our present, our past, and our future are all intermingled around Newport's architecture.

>> There is a lot of money coming into Newport right now.

A lot of people are getting out of the city.

They have either already discovered Newport or are newly discovering it.

They're buying up properties because Newport is a bargain compared to Nantucket and the Hamptons and the Vineyard and more easily accessible.

>> Didn't know then, and we still don't know now what's going to happen as a result of COVID.

But if people continue to leave metropolitan cities like San Fran and New York and Boston and decide that they have an option where they want to live because they can work from home, people choose Newport.

>> There has been a great influx of people relocating to Newport, whether they're buying or renting, but there's only so much space.

>> Right.

>> So the people who have been here, the people, the younger generation, the people who are shopping and supporting all the local businesses, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

>> And while we all enjoy the economic benefits of having tourists, you have to understand that these neighborhoods, there are real people that live here, that work and send their children to school.

>> And as the prices in real estate go up, it drives out a lot of the families who have these core businesses, they're having to move out of the heart of Newport because it's unaffordable now.

♪♪ >> If you're planning a very large summer gathering, a 4th of July parade, a large music festival... you are not going to be able to have that event in the state of Rhode Island this summer.

>> ♪ I know a guy who's got a lot to lose ♪ ♪ He's a pretty nice fella, kind of confused ♪ ♪ Got muscles in his head ain't never been used ♪ ♪ Thinks he owns half of this town ♪ >> My stomach is in a knot as I think about Aquidneck Island and Newport.

>> We have new reaction tonight from the lead producer of the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals, now canceled because of the coronavirus.

>> We're also hearing from vendors who relied on the income generated at the events and have now have to make alternate plans.

>> We understand that the impact of us not being able to do this is going to be felt way beyond our foundation.

And that is the thing that keeps me up at night.

>> A study of festivals in 2018 shows the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals brought the state more than $58 million alone.

That money will not be seen this year.

>> People are focused on fundraising and how they can...

I can't think of a better word than survive, frankly.

>> I was getting texts from artists who were literally going homeless, not being able to get food, ones that had children.

And I learned that one of my mentors and heroes, John Prine, the well-known songwriter and musician, was really sick and he wasn't doing well.

Instead of hunkering in the bunker -- it's a phrase we've been using -- we decided to just try to get up and do what we could.

>> ♪ That's the way that the world goes round ♪ ♪ You're up one day, the next you're down ♪ It's a half an inch of water, you think you're gonna drown ♪ ♪ That's the way that the world goes round.

♪ ♪♪ >> I want to start today with some good news, which is that the federal government and the Congress reached a deal for a $2 trillion federal stimulus package.

In total, there's $1.25 billion of aid coming to the state of Rhode Island for local businesses, particularly small businesses that agree to retain their workforce.

>> The PPP loans were lifesaving for us.

>> We were actually able to utilize the resources that the government had for us to, like, help us with our employees, as well as any sort of incidentals that we came across during the pandemic.

>> I have to say, the federal government and the state of Rhode Island have been extremely helpful to small businesses such as mine, to enable us to rehire our staff.

Without that, it would have been difficult to reopen.

>> History will look back on it and consider it to be one of the most successful stimulus packages ever put out.

It was really unbelievable at the time how many businesses it saved.

>> [ Speaks indistinctly ] We're not the type of restaurant that people think of when they want to get takeout.

By and large, the people who are calling me for takeout are because they're fans, they're friends, they're neighbors, they want to see us survive.

And so they're doing it for that more than anything else.

>> I reached out very early to to Heather Strout, the executive director of MLK.

I had seen some stories on Chef Andrés, who does the World Kitchen, how he was pushing for restaurants to help with this need to feed people that were obviously hungry.

So Heather asked me, she said, "Can you make meals that we could distribute through their food pantry?"

By all accounts, it was quite a success.

It kept our crew together.

You know, we kept our kitchen together.

It was a learning curve, but it kept us going.

>> The industry was really feeling the crunch.

So we had brainstormed a little bit and came up with the idea of the home delivery thing, dealing with, you know, individual people and smaller volume.

My wife helped me kind of create a web page.

Everybody was really quick to jump on and help support.

Everybody knows a fisherman, everybody knows a chef or somebody that works at a restaurant.

Retail consumers were asking questions like, can we keep our lobsters in the bathtub overnight?

>> So can you keep your lobsters in the bathtub?

>> I wouldn't suggest putting your lobsters in the bathtub.

♪♪ >> The public has become more aware of the importance, the necessity of a regional supply chain, particularly with regard to food.

So we've seen the support for the market grow and for the farmers and home deliveries grow.

>> The local food chain became much more critical.

Unfortunately, it took COVID to make people aware of that.

♪♪ >> We are living this right now, every day.

Please stay vigilant.

That's the hardest part for me, for us, managing this crisis.

It's kind of a slow grind crisis.

This is a marathon of crisis.

And we're, I don't know, mile 12.

We have a long way to go here.

>> I have a great deal of family members and friends that are not only working the restaurant business, but are health care workers, teachers, police officers, first responders that are on the front lines every day.

I'm coming close on my time to be scheduled for the vaccine, and I would advise everyone to get the vaccine so that we can get back to normal.

>> We started delivering the Pfizer vaccine at the beginning of January, and we really ramped up our vaccine clinic pretty quickly and prepared that through the holiday season to make sure it was ready to launch.

Then we got the Moderna vaccine just a week later, and so we've been using both of those and really using those supplies so that they're not sitting in a freezer, that they're out there getting in shots in people's arms as quickly as we possibly could.

>> I just come by to get vaccinated today.

Well, I feel like a rock star in a way.

No sore, so I'm feeling good.

[ Laughing ] >> Everything moved quite quickly on Tuesday.

First, the Senate confirmed Gina Raimondo as the next Commerce Secretary, then she resigned officially as governor.

And then, around 6:30 last night, Dan McKee officially became the next governor.

>> That you will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties of your aforesaid Office of Governor to the best of your abilities according to law, so help you God.

>> Thank you, I do.

Let's continue to be disciplined.

Wear a mask, keep our distance, wash your hands.

Get tested.

Plan activities outside versus indoors.

>> My husband passed away in June.

He was 95, and he had dementia.

I knew I had to do something that would be good for me.

So I'm walking three times a week, and I take yoga on Thursday and this on Tuesdays.

It's helped me, in my head, kind of get through this.

>> Walking on Cliff Walk during the pandemic allowed me to still be able to get out and exercise and find some peace of mind.

It reminds me that things are still okay, that we can still do this, and in a slightly different way.

>> I've learned that people really love our landscapes, even offering people the opportunity to picnic on the grounds of our properties.

That used to be verboten.

We would never let people picnic on the grounds.

That was just awful.

And yet, it really isn't awful.

It's wonderful.

>> Apparently, everybody during the COVID pandemic had decided to get a puppy or a dog or you know, anything.

I saw one shelter up in Massachusetts who said that they had gotten 14,000 applications since COVID started.

So they were not even taking any more.

Then I saw this picture of a beautiful puppy.

Kind of too beautiful that I thought it was a scam.

But it ended up not being a scam and, you know, week and a half later, she showed up from Kentucky.

We just picked up our puppy and she was ours.

>> The use of our trails has quadrupled in the period of COVID, so it's just been amazing.

We have trail counters on our trails.

Since March, 55,000 people have used our trails, and that is way more than were using them previously.

>> People stayed local, and they looked around, they saw that, oh, my goodness, look at all these parklands.

The Aquidneck Island Land Trust is preserved.

We can do these walking paths.

We can come down to Sail Newport.

Oh, it's a public access sailing center, and we can go learn to sail.

That's on our bucket list.

We just never looked around.

♪♪ >> People are just being cooped up in their houses, driving them nuts.

They want to get out.

They want to go sailing.

And this is one of the best ways to do it.

Even on a day like today, where if gets up to 20 degrees, we'll be psyched.

We're still going to have 20 to 30 boats.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> The word you use these days is pivot, so we've been pivoting.

This is extremely therapeutic to be out here.

I'd be in my basement abode at the moment, probably looking at the computer otherwise.

So rather than have to see a therapist, I can come out and play music.

And it really does have a positive impact.

>> It's just a day-by-day thing, getting up each day, saying, "Okay, we're going to get through today.

We're going to do the best that we can do, and we're going to try and find those little moments that make it so important for our residents."

To see us here and to know that they're being cared for.

>> I think one of the things we all have to think about -- churches, schools, the the government -- is how to keep people engaged positively with each other.

>> We were fully virtual, and on Friday afternoons, we started doing a 4:00 happy hour.

Obviously no drinks involved.

Just happy to be together.

And then, I put on James Brown, and everyone had this improv jam and we had a blast.

They all left with smiles on their faces, and it was just like always being in tune with the moment and saying we just need to own this new reality and make the most of it.

>> We used to think that, if we could get 150 people to Rosecliff for a lecture, that would be outstanding.

And now, with our virtual lectures, we're seeing between 300 and 600 people each time.

>> We hosted virtual chats with Hall of Famers, giving any fan the opportunity to just tune in and see what Kim Clijsters is up to.

And it really was a productive endeavor that we did.

>> We were able to reopen our walking tours.

That was huge because we were able to get out in front of the community.

>> The other thing that we started doing was ringing the Colony House Bell on every Friday as a way of reminding everyone that we were all still here and in this together, and that was so lovely.

[ Bell ringing ] ♪♪ >> We were pretty much sure we're not going to have a sailing season last year, and then it turned out to be the greatest season ever.

We had nonstop sailing, all the New Yorkers and all the people from Boston who couldn't go anywhere else that just wanted to be out in the fresh air.

>> The human spirit is really phenomenal.

And just when you think you can't take on more, suddenly you find a second wind because you're forced to.

This perspective of looking back on some of the things that I went through and a lot of other people went through really allows you to have a little bit more confidence in your ability to take on some other massive force that disrupts your life.

Because you got through this one.

>> I feel like I could do anything now.

I've been able to keep my business afloat.

I've been able to keep my employees employed, pay them.

I feel like I'm keeping everyone happy.

>> True to the history of the Redwood Library, which has this very important symbolic value.

It withstood the British occupation, the influenzas of the late 18th century, the hurricane of '38, and now this pandemic.

And, so, one thing that we've learned is the resilience of Newporters in the face of all sorts of traumas.

>> The originating ideas for this whole country had their first practice here.

The notion of basic tolerance for the beliefs of others.

And let me say that I do think that religious tolerance is kind of the gateway drug for other kinds of tolerance.

>> As one person, you think, like, there's not a lot that I can do, but if you can even help change just, like, one, one person, one student, their path, then it's a significant impact.

>> I was walking down the dock and I was asking a girl, "Have you ever been sailing before?"

And she said, "No."

She has her hand in the water.

She's just kind of playing in the water.

And she said to me, "That's the first time I've ever touched saltwater."

It's like, wow, she lives half a mile from one of the most iconic waterfronts in the world.

You know, it reinforced that we have a lot of work to do.

>> When we go back to whatever we call the new normal, we can't forget the deep fissures and the deep disparities that exist.

>> There are certain communities, certain places where people have just been crushed by this, and there are some areas that have been relatively protected.

So how do we learn from all that?

>> The one thing that the pandemic has has hurt, I think, is the chance to be listening to music with somebody you might disagree with on 99 issues, and you both love the guitar solo or the sax solo or the piano solo that's happening, and you kind of lock eyes and you're like, "Hey, that's great."

I don't know.

I know that's crazy, but I think that those things are -- we miss those things.

And, so, how do I feel when we come out of this?

I think we need to have a lot of time listening to music in hopes that we can find some more common ground.

>> COVID has separated a lot of people, you know, in the beginning.

All of us going through it together, I'm hoping that, on the other side, that we all can still stay together and we're all one.

We are all one.

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