The secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Health, Carlos Mellado López, today called on the public to be careful and follow COVID-19 prevention protocols to avoid contamination.
The call comes at a time when the percentage of positivity in molecular tests reaches 13.84 percent, putting Puerto Rico at a high transmission level for the past seven consecutive days.
“To say that Puerto Rico ranks first with the highest positivity rate in the US is incorrect. However, we are at a high level of community transmission, prompting us to make adjustments as we have done to protect life and slow down infections. Given this result, we are increasing the number of island-wide molecular tests to identify the carrier of the virus and obtain an updated epidemiological picture. Most importantly, civilians help us to stop the virus, ”said Mellado López in written statements.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, the number of molecular tests performed on the island from March to now is 1,928,745. Of which 107,884 thousand tests were positive for the virus.
As he explained, positivity measures the percentage of positive tests out of the total number of tests performed in a seven-day period. The highest rate of positivity during the pandemic occurred between November and December 2020, a period when more than 10,000 tests were conducted daily.
“We have seen that the percentage of positive cases has increased. Especially in young people and adults under 40, who are concerned with implementing strategies, as we have done to prevent infections and detect positive cases in a timely manner. We will continue to monitor the data and we will synchronize it with the Federal Ministry of Health and the CDC so that they have the most accurate data, ”said the official.