RI Surpasses 100K Coronavirus Cases, Weekly Numbers Climb

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island marked another grim milestone of the coronavirus pandemic this week, surpassing 100,000 total cases. Week-over-week, two of the state's three data trends saw improvement, while case numbers continued to climb.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 101,000 total cases marked in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly one year ago. Rhode Island is also poised to surpass 2,000 total deaths by the end of the week, with 1,970 to date.

The weekly data was a mixed bag, with hospitalizations continuing to hold steady at 374, nearly the same as the week before. The percent positive rate, which jumped to 7.4 percent last week, saw some improvement over the last week. As of Tuesday, the weekly percent positive rate was 6.6 percent, which is higher than both the weeks of Dec. 19 and 26.

The most concerning trend over the past weeks is the number of new cases per 100,000 people. For the second week in a row, the number rose, increasing to 752 from 675.

Despite these grim numbers, the state is in a far better state than it was this time last month. On Friday, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, said there has been "a marked improvement" since the peak in hospitalizations, cases and percent positivity in the first half of December.

"This virus is still incredibly dangerous," she said at the time. "We all need to continue following rules to save lives and protect our hospitals."

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