State attorney general tests negative, will quarantine

PROVIDENCE (AP) — Rhode Island’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday that he tested negative for the coronavirus, a day after announcing that a member of his household had tested positive.

State Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement from his office that he will quarantine for 14 days and follow all appropriate guidelines.

He previously said he would continue to carry out his responsibilities remotely until he is able to return to the office on Dec. 22.

The household member, who was not named, tested positive on Monday.

MORE PATIENTS IN THE HOSPITAL

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Rhode Island continue to reach new heights, according to state Department of Health numbers released Wednesday.

There were 461 patients in the state’s hospitals with the disease as of Monday, the latest day for which the information was available, a single-day record. The previous record was 455 on

Sunday.

The department also reported more than 1,200 new confirmed cases out of nearly 16,200 tests, a daily positivity rate of about 7.6%.

The latest 7-day average positivity rate in Rhode Island is 9.04%, according to the COVID Tracking

Project. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Rhode Island the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test encounters using data from The COVID Tracking Project.

The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island has risen over the past two weeks from more than 985 on Nov. 24 to almost

1,309 on Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The state also reported 14 more deaths on Wednesday for a total of 1,484 fatalities.

VACCINE SCAM

The state Department of Health is warning of an email scam in which someone purporting to be a department doctor asks recipients to click on a link to preregister for a

COVID-19 vaccine.

The department in a social media post Tuesday warned that it is a phishing scam and anyone who receives the email from a Dr. Kimberly Turner should not open or share it, but instead should delete it.

The department does not employ a Dr. Kimberly Turner, and there are no licensed physicians with that name in Rhode Island.