Raimondo defends vaccination rollout in now-rare comments

*Gov. Gina Raimondo in a screen shot from her Facebook conversation with state health officials February 9, 2021, shortly before speaking with reporters for the first time since December.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — While acknowledging there have been “bumps in the road,” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo in her first media interview since December defended the state’s coronavirus vaccination efforts and pledged to keep working on improvements to the system.

“I know folks are frustrated with the pace of vaccinations, but our strategy is working and you can see that because hospitalizations have been dropping like a rock,” Raimondo told WPRI-TV and The Providence Journal outside the State House on Tuesday after a virtual vaccination rollout briefing.

The Democrat has been nominated by President Joe Biden to be his administration’s commerce secretary and had not answered questions from the media since Dec. 22.

She said she remains committed to working for Rhode Islanders until her confirmation.

“I can tell you I’m working as hard as I ever have as the governor,” Raimondo said. “My day-to-day hasn’t changed that much.”

The state’s vaccination efforts have been hampered in part by supply, but that is expected to be bumped up to 19,000 first doses per week by the end of February, she said. So far more than 88,000 residents of Rhode Island have received a vaccine first dose, and almost 37,000 have been fully vaccinated, according to state Department of Health statistics released Tuesday.

“Rhode Island’s actually doing very well, relative to other states in terms of people being fully vaccinated with the two shots,” Raimondo said. “Having said that, we’re going to keep working to make sure it goes faster and faster.”

She also defended the use of pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens to help with the vaccination effort, despite some early glitches in their signup systems.

“It made sense to rely on CVS and Walgreens, because they have an infrastructure, they have the pharmacy infrastructure and we want to be where people are,” Raimondo said. “Having said that, there have been too many bumps in the road.”

She said she decided to let Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee, who will take over from her if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, be the face of the state’s vaccination rollout and he is “doing a great job.”