PROVIDENCE – New confirmed cases of COVID-19 jumped by 145 in Rhode Island, with no new deaths reported, the R.I. Department of Health said Wednesday.
The department said there have been 65.8 new cases per 100,000 Rhode Island residents in the previous seven days, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as “substantial transmission.”
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“Substantial transmission” is the third threshold in the CDC’s community transmission tier system. The state, if it reaches more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents, would be placed in the “high transmission” category.
The rise in cases in recent days comes as hospitals in Rhode Island operated by Lifespan and Care New England Health System announced on Tuesday plans to start mandating vaccinations for all workers and volunteers in early September.
While there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases this week, hospitalizations for patients infected with the virus have also increased, with 29 currently hospitalized, five more than the amount who were hospitalized a day earlier. Of those hospitalized, six are in intensive care, double the amount from the previous day, according to the R.I. Department of Health COVID-19 Data Tracker. Three of those patients are on ventilators.
That’s still a far cry from the number of people hospitalized on July 28, 2020, when 67 COVID-19 patients were being treated at hospitals in Rhode Island hospitals.
There have been 655,786 individuals fully vaccinated in the state to date, an increase of 860 from Tuesday, with a total of 1.32 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered.
Total confirmed cases of the virus in the state have totaled 153,954, an increase of 152 from prior figures reported on Tuesday, accounting for the day-to-day increase as well as data revisions for previous days and reporting delays.
Deaths due to the virus in Rhode Island total 2,739. The state has seen no deaths since July 14, according to RIDOH data, but four deaths were reported earlier during the month. By comparison, there were 46 deaths due to the virus from July 1 through July 28, 2020.
There were 5,628 tests processed on Tuesday, with an overall positive rate of 3%. When excluding both repeat positive and repeat negative test results, the positive rate was 11.2%.
There have been 4.6 million tests administered in the state to 978,315 individuals.
The department also released its three weekly COVID-19 metrics Tuesday:
- The positive rate last week was 1.8%, a rise from 1% one week prior.
- New hospital admissions totaled 22 last week, a rise from 17 one week prior.
- New cases per 100,000 residents totaled 55, a rise from 29 one week prior.
