4 Rhode Island counties move from ‘low’ to ‘medium’ COVID-19 community level, health officials say

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Department of Health announced Friday that four Rhode Island counties have moved from “low” to “medium” COVID-19 community levels.

In the continuous shift from pandemic to endemic, Gov. Dan McKee and health officials adopted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s new framework for measuring risk levels earlier last month.

State officials said they voted to switch to this new system as COVID cases in the state continue to drop. At that time, all five counties in the state were in the “low” category.

Bristol, Kent, Newport, and Washington counties are now considered “medium” tier, according to the latest COVID-19 data from the CDC.

“These counties are ‘medium’ because more than 200 new cases per 100,000 people were identified there in the last seven days. Our hospitalization numbers and hospital capacity numbers are still considered low throughout the state,” said a RIDOH spokesperson.

Health officials cite BA.2, a subvariant of the coronavirus variant omicron, as a factor.

The Department of Health recommends vaccination and boosters.