RI's New Coronavirus Hospitalizations Back Within Safe Range

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island passed another promising milestone in the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, falling below the safe threshold of new weekly hospitalizations.

Over the past week, 174 people were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, which is well below the safe threshold of 210 per week. This is the first time this figure has been within the safe range in months, since before the state's "second wave" spike around the December holidays.

Hospitalizations have been a major concern throughout the pandemic. During the December spike, the state was dangerously close to reaching capacity at both existing and coronavirus field hospitals, which prompted Gov. Gina Raimondo to implement a three-week "pause" to stem the rapid spread of the virus in the state.

The Department of Health's data tracker showed across-the-board improvements over the past week. The weekly percent positivity rate has been below the safe threshold of five percent for the past four weeks, dropping to 2.2 percent in the past week.

Cases per 100,000 people are still above the safe threshold of 100. This figure also saw improvement in the past week, falling to 246 from 305.

The improving data trends prompted state officials to lift certain restrictions on businesses in the past two weeks, raising the social gathering limit to two households indoors, allowing bar areas to reopen and more.

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