RI Back Within Safe Range For Coronavirus Positivity Rate

PROVIDENCE, RI — For the first time in months, Rhode Island's weekly coronavirus positivity rate is below 5 percent, which is the Department of Health's safety threshold.

It's been more than two months since the state's weekly positivity rate was lower than 1 percent. The week of Nov. 2, the state had a rate of 5.1 percent, which only continued to climb in the following weeks. The state saw its highest weekly rates to date in early December, when it topped out at 9 percent.

This is the fourth consecutive week Rhode Island's coronavirus data has shown improvement. All three key trends — new hospitalizations, cases per 100,000 people and percent positivity — are on the decline. Despite the decreases, both hospitalizations and case numbers are still well above their safe thresholds this week, at 374 and 491, respectively. To be considered safe, new weekly hospitalizations must be below 210, while the benchmark for cases per 100,000 people is 100 or fewer.

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