By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Delaware’s number of COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped to its lowest point since Aug. 16, according to the most recent update from the Delaware Division of Public Health.

DPH reported 151 individuals hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, which reflects data as of Friday at 6 p.m. Hospitalizations have been over 150 since Aug. 17, the last time they were under that mark was on Aug. 16 when there were 142.

COVID-19 hospitalizations surged in late August and throughout most of September, hitting a peak of 271 on Sept. 11. The number was as high as 266 in October, on Oct. 3.

Delaware’s all-time high for COVID-19 hospitalizations is 474 on Jan. 12. They were as low as 15 on June 27 before the surge in the late summer.

Sixty-eight percent of Delaware’s new COVID-19 hospitalizations between Oct. 18-24 were not fully vaccinated, according to DPH’s most recent available data.

Of the 71 hospitalizations that week, 48 were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. For the same time period, 1,603 of 2,166 (74%) of new positive cases were also not fully vaccinated, according to DPH statistics.

There were 17 COVID-19-related deaths in the same time period and 15 were not fully vaccinated (88%).

There have been 5,517 total breakthrough cases reported to DPH to date — 1% of fully vaccinated Delawareans. 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.”

DPH also announced it identified 118 additional cases of the delta variant through routine surveillance of test specimens, including 23 sequenced at an outside lab. No other variants were found during sequencing at DPH’s lab or outside labs.

Due to a technical issue, DPH said the number of specimens sampled this week was reduced. It added the issue is being resolved.

DPH also announced two additional COVID-19-related deaths on Saturday, bringing the total number to 2,091. It reported 383 new positive cases of the virus, increasing that total to 143,950.