R.I. COVID-19 cases rise by 1,613, with 12 new deaths

PROVIDENCE – Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rhode Island increased by 1,613, with 12 new deaths, the R.I. Department of Health reported on Wednesday.

That’s an uptick from 1,321 new cases reported the previous day by the R.I. Department of Health. But Wednesday’s daily report counting positive test findings from Tuesday is far less than those reported in the past few weeks, during an omicron surge that led to as many as 6,772 new cases reported in a single day on Jan. 5.

Hospitalizations of COVID-19 now total 479, an increase from the 460 reported the previous day. Of those hospitalized, 45 are in intensive care units and 27 are on ventilators.

There have been 1,443 new cases per 100,000 Rhode Island residents in the previous seven days, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as “high transmission.” That’s the lowest it’s been since Dec. 29, when the R.I. Department of Health reported 1,399 cases per 100,000 Rhode Islanders within a seven-day period. It’s a figure that reached as high as 3,573 per 100,000 on Jan. 9.

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While down compared to recent figures during the omicron surge, the latest daily report of 1,613 new cases is still nearly 2.5 times greater than the amount of new cases reported a year ago. Hospitalizations are also up from this point last year.

There were 677 new cases identified on Jan. 25, 2021, which was a Monday. There were 370 COVID-19 patients hospitalized at the time, of which 61 were in the ICU and 39 were on ventilators, and the transmission rate then was 493.4 cases per 100,000 residents.

To date, there have been 800,538 individuals fully vaccinated in the state, as well as 2.06 million total COVID-19 vaccines doses administered.

Confirmed cases in the state now total 337,659, an increase of 1,613 from figures reported Tuesday, accounting for the day-to-day increases and data revisions for previous days.

There have been 3,275 deaths due to the virus in Rhode Island.

There were 17,718 tests processed on Tuesday with a positive rate of 9.1%. There have been 7.2 million tests administered in the state since the pandemic began.

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.