Weekend Coronavirus Numbers Show Increased Rate of Spread and 900+ New Cases

Weekend Coronavirus Numbers Show Increased Rate of Spread and 900+ New Cases

The bad news continues to build. The Raimondo administration reported new numbers from the weekend and they showed an increased infection rate — now 4.2% according to RI Department of Health data. The numbers may actually be significantly higher - READ WHY HERE.

Rhode Island recorded 906 positive cases over the weekend.

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That reported rate mixes both symptomatic and asymptotic testing, as well as including the college and university tests, which are almost all asymptomatic.

How Mixing in Colleges Skews Numbers

College asymptomatic testing accounted for more than a third of the state’s weekend testing. Of the 32,570 tests, 11,161 were conducted by the schools, and all of the colleges combined only had 27 positive cases over the three days.

On Sunday alone, there were fewer than 3,925 tests conducted across the state and many of them asymptomatic — and Rhode Island recorded 167 new cases. If standardized for only symptomatic tests, and adjusted for 10,000 tests, Rhode Island would have recorded more than 700 cases.

When removing Sunday’s college results, 770 tests and two positives, RI’s positivity rate increases to 4.7%.

Dr. Michael Fine, former RI Director of Health, warns that at this pace of growth and this increase in the virus may continue for up to 12 weeks.

He made the comments on GoLocal LIVE, which can be viewed above.

He urges workplaces that can have remote workers to do so immediately.