DOVER — According to the Delaware Division of Public Health, 1,997 people have died from COVID-19 as of Thursday.

In a news release from DPH, there were 43 deaths last week, including 19 from a review of vital statistic records.

Data from DPH that delivers a breakdown of vaccination status for cases, deaths and hospitalizations from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, show a “significant percentage of cases and hospitalized individuals in Delaware who are unvaccinated, or only partially vaccinated,” the release states.

Of the total number of cases recorded from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, 79% can be attributed to people who were partially vaccinated or unvaccinated, according to the data from DPH.

Seventy-nine percent of hospitalizations during that time period also were people who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. There were 111 people hospitalized that week with 88 of which unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Sixty-four percent of deaths recorded by DPH from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people.

There have been 547,406 cumulative breakthrough cases since vaccinations began in Delaware. According to DPH, about 1% of vaccinated Delawareans have experienced a breakthrough case.

The release states a breakthrough case is defined as testing positive for COVID-19 after an individual has been fully vaccinated for two weeks or more — although it does not mean that the infection occurred after vaccination, the release states.

There have been 70 breakthrough cases that required hospitalization and 54 breakthrough deaths since vaccinations started.

Last week, 631 COVID-19 test samples were sequenced through routine surveillance of test specimens. Of those test samples, 397 (62.9%) sequenced at the DPH Lab were positive for a COVID-19 variant strain, as were three additional specimens sequenced at an outside lab.

Of the 400 variant positive samples, all but two were identified as the Delta strain; one Mu variant and one Gamma variant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated the classifications of known COVID-19 variants. Currently, the Delta variant is the only variant being monitored by the CDC as a “variant of concern” and no other variants are currently classified as “variants of interest.”

For more information regarding CDC variant classifications, visit cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/variant-surveillance/variant-info.html.

As of Thursday, there have been a total of 2,900 positive COVID-19 cases involving long-term care residents, and 847 residents of Delaware long-term care facilities have died from complications related to COVID-19, the release states.

The state’s total positive COVID-19 cases since March 11, 2020, when the COVID-19 virus presented in the state, is 136,682.

The seven-day average of new positive cases is 450.9, which marks a decrease from 444.6 last week, according to DPH.

The seven-day average for the percentage of total positive tests is 7.8%, however, which marks an increase from 7.5 last week.

Hospitalizations numbers too have increased over last week to 234 as of Thursday. There are 32 people critically ill, which is a decrease of three from last week.

As of Thursday afternoon, 1,199,379 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Delaware. The number of Delawareans 12 years of age and older who have received at least one dose is 582,650.

The number of Delawareans 18 years of age and older who received at least once dose is 543,471.

As of Thursday, 547,406 Delawareans are fully vaccinated.

DPH continues to urge Delawareans to get vaccinated saying in the release that those “who are fully vaccinated have significant protection from COVID-19 infection, serious illness and death.”

For the latest information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Delaware, visit de.gov/getmyvaccine.