WILMINGTON — A week after snow lowered Delaware’s COVID-19 testing turnout, state officials are asking Delawareans to double-check the status of their testing site in the event of another storm. …
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WILMINGTON — A week after snow lowered Delaware’s COVID-19 testing turnout, state officials are asking Delawareans to double-check the status of their testing site in the event of another storm.
A.J. Schall, director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, said the state’s testing website, de.gov/gettested, and the Division of Public Health’s Facebook page will provide updates on any weather-related cancellations.
“As we have to close, cancel or rearrange, we try to get that word out as close as possible to the time that we make that decision,” Mr. Schall said.
The state had to cancel numerous testing sites last week as Delaware was hit with a two-day snowstorm.
Testing numbers were down as a result. Delaware performed 37,936 COVID-19 tests for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, lower than the 49,274 recorded the week prior.
“We did lose almost two-and-a-half days because of the weather at some of our bigger sites,” Mr. Schall said. “I’m hoping we catch up this week. However, it looks like Mother Nature might throw us a curveball this week.”
Delaware is still outperforming its goal of 80,000 tests per month.
“Even with the slowdown with the snow days, we’re far beyond our original goal of 80,000 a month,” said Gov. John Carney at his weekly COVID-19 press briefing Tuesday. “That seems like a pittance now, when you’re over 150,000 and closing in on 200,000 each month. It shows the public is paying attention, and they haven’t lost the focus on the importance of knowing their status to protect themselves and their neighbors.”
The state recently surpassed a COVID-19-testing mark, testing its 600,000th different person.
Delaware had performed a total of 1,289,283 COVID-19 tests on 600,565 unique individuals as of Tuesday at 6 p.m.