By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Delaware is entering a “new phase” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. John Carney said at the state’s weekly COVID-19 briefing Tuesday.

“All of the data is getting better and pretty dramatically so,” he said.

That news has led to the removal of the state’s indoor mask mandate, effective at 8 a.m. Friday. The requirement was put into effect Jan. 3, when Delaware reentered a state of emergency due to record-setting COVID-19 statistics spurred on by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

A month later, however, the state’s coronavirus numbers are lower than they were in February 2021.

Delaware is down to 237 individuals hospitalized with the virus, compared to the peak of 759 on Jan. 12. It is the lowest number of hospitalizations since Dec. 4, 2021, and is ahead of last year’s pace, when there were 243 hospitalized at this time, as the state was coming out of its first winter surge.

The seven-day rolling average of new positive cases has decreased to 450.7 per day. It was at 1,587.7 cases per day two weeks ago and as high as 3,383.9 per day Jan. 12.

“We’re in less of an emergency situation than we’ve been,” Gov. Carney said Tuesday.

The state will be sticking with the masking rule in public and private K-12 schools, as well as in child care facilities, through March 31. Masks have been mandatory for children kindergarten-age and older since schools began operating in a hybrid model in fall 2020.

Face coverings were still required when students returned to in-person learning this academic year, even after the state dropped its universal mandate.

Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Division of Public Health, said the extension of the school mask mandate should allow parents time to get their children vaccinated before April. Only 22.7% of children between the ages of 5-11 are fully vaccinated, while 56.1% of 12-17-year-olds are, according to DPH statistics.

Dr. Rattay added that DPH is doing outreach with schools and working with local pediatricians to educate parents on the benefits of the vaccine.

“We really strongly encourage people to reach out to their pediatrician,” she said. “Talk to them about any questions or concerns you might have.”

With the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day coming up, Gov. Carney did take time Tuesday to remind Delawareans to remain vigilant against the virus after the mask mandate expires Friday.

“We do know from our past experience that events that bring people together are events than can create mini-surges,” he said. “We just ask people to think about that when they make decisions about what to do for any of those celebrations.”

Delaware has recorded 251,669 cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic and 2,593 COVID-19-related deaths. DPH reported 17 new deaths in Tuesday’s update, one of which was found during a review of Vital Statistics records.

Two of the 17 individuals did not have underlying health conditions. Twelve were not vaccinated, DPH said.