RI's Daily Coronavirus Percent Positive Rate Surges Past 4%

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island is in the midst of a coronavirus spike, seeing the daily percent positive rate inch closer and closer to the 5 percent threshold of safety. On Sunday, the state reported a percent positive rate of 4.3 percent.

The state has been in a concerning slide towards a potential "second wave" over the past two weeks, seeing surges in new hospitalizations, case numbers and percent positivity. For the past two weeks, the weekly average case data has shown the state is above the threshold of safety of 100 cases per 100,000 people, at 149 last week and 126 the week prior.

The state reported 441 cases over the weekend and one death. This comes after the state marked several major milestones last week: completing its one millionth coronavirus test since the beginning of the pandemic in March, exceeding 30,000 total positive cases and marking a single-day high in cases on Friday with 449 new cases.

"The numbers aren't good, I won't sugarcoat it," Gov. Gina Raimondo said last week. "The bottom line is, we're not in a good place."

On Thursday, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, issued a statement urging all Rhode Islanders to follow social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines.

"While Rhode Island's COVID-19 numbers are not moving in the right direction, we absolutely have the power to change our trajectory," Alexander-Scott said. "We all need to be wearing our masks when we're around people we don't live with, limiting our groups, and avoiding non-essential activities with people outside our households as the holidays approach."

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