Baker: Rhode Island wedding caused COVID cluster in Mass.

By G. Wayne Miller/Providence Journal Staff Writer

Posted Aug 26, 2020 

PROVIDENCE – Nearly every Massachusetts resident who attended a wedding event in Rhode Island in July later tested positive for coronavirus, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said at his press conference Tuesday.

“There was a wedding that we figured out through our contact tracing program that took place in Rhode Island where a number of people from Massachusetts went to it,” Baker said. “Everybody who went to that wedding except one person tested positive for COVID.”

In a statement to NBC News 10, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said “19 out of the 20 individuals in attendance have tested positive and include 17 cases in Massachusetts. Close contacts of the cases were identified and notified.”

In a separate statement, Rhode Island Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken said the event was a bachelorette party at an undisclosed location in Rhode Island.

“The group was almost entirely from Massachusetts,” Wendelken said. “The Massachusetts Department of Public Health told us that many of the people who attended the bachelorette party got sick.”

Baker’s Tuesday press conference was held at a bicycle shop in Belmont, Mass.

“There are reasons why we focus so hard on face coverings and distancing and hand-washing and wiping surfaces,” the governor said. “These are the things that we all have the power and control over to do to limit the spread of the virus.”