For RI, This Coming Week’s Numbers May Be the Most Important in the Battle Against Coronavirus

For RI, This Coming Week’s Numbers May Be the Most Important in the Battle Against Coronavirus

With Rhode Island reporting a record number of new cases on Friday and being tagged as one the biggest outbreak states and the only one on the East Coast, this week’s numbers may determine the fate of schools, work, and the implementation of restrictions by the Raimondo administration.

Covid ActNow last week ranked Rhode Island as being in the outbreak level and has designated the state's rate of daily new cases, which is now 32.7 per 100,000 as a “dangerous number of new cases.”

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The organization urged Rhode Island to do the following. “Schools: Enable remote learning for all students. All government levels should invest in remote learning. Masks should be worn outside of the home, according to CDC guidelines, to continue reducing the spread of COVID.”

"Over the last week, Rhode Island has averaged 347 new confirmed cases per day (32.7 for every 100,000 residents). Over the next year, this translates to around 130,000 cases and an estimated 630,000 infections (59.7% of the population)," report Covid ActNow.

Governor Gina Raimondo has not implemented any new restrictions other than limiting Halloween parties and in fact, continues to promote in-restaurant eating and has given the green light to a door-to-door Halloween.

This past week showed significant deficiencies in the state’s testing, reporting and ability to implement quarantining programs.

With Rhode Island’s pace of infection doubling in just days, if the pace of increase continues, the state’s hospitals run the risk of being overwhelmed — something that did not happen in the spring outbreak in Rhode Island. The good news is that ICU usage levels are presently very low. 

"Based on best available data, we estimate that 70% (203) are currently occupied by non-COVID patients. Of the 88 ICU beds remaining, 13 are needed by COVID cases, or 15% of available beds. This suggests there is likely enough capacity to absorb a wave of new COVID infections," states Covid ActNow.

 

RI’s Flawed Testing System

As GoLocal reported on Saturday, Rhode Island’s testing reporting is deeply flawed as it is lumping the test results on those who are symptomatic and asymptomatic together.

Raimondo continues to celebrate the testing program.

On Friday, she said, "We reached a milestone this week in our ​state's response to COVID-19: we've run our one millionth test. It took us nearly six months from our first case to reach 500,000 tests, and it's only taken us another two months to reach 1,000,000. Because of this unprecedented testing effort, we've been able to quickly identify ​and isolate positive cases."

 

 

Quarantining Program is Flawed

Dr. Michael Fine, who has self-quarantined due to travel in August and exposure in October said the state’s program for those in quarantine has numerous flaws — lack of follow-up, lack of communication and temporary staff who lack proper training.

Fine flagged the tracing capacity -- as pointed out by Covid Act Now -- as being particularly problematic. 

“I’m seeing the breakdown of some of that already -- they're working as hard as they can and doing everything they can and they're working impossibly long hours but there are just not enough bodies there to get the contact tracing done and then we really never got sophisticated about isolating people who were positive,” Fine added.