By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Delaware’s COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations continued their upward trend over the past week.

The state is averaging 326 new positive cases per day over the last seven days — the highest the seven-day rolling average has been since it was 343.3 new cases per day on Feb. 14. There were 385 new positives announced on Friday, reflecting data as of Thursday at 6 p.m., which brings the overall total to 95,590 COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.

The percent-positive rate is rising as well, up to 5.5%, which is above the World Health Organization’s recommended mark of 5%. The seven-day rolling average for percentage of positive tests was as low as 3.6% on March 11 but has risen nearly two full percentage points since then. It has not been this high since Feb. 13.

The most recent mark of 5.5% is as of Tuesday at 6 p.m. due to a two-day lag to account for the time delay between the date of the test and the date the Delaware Division of Public Health receives the test result.

In addition, 141 individuals are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Delaware, which is an increase of 25 as of this time last week and the most COVID-19 hospitalizations since there were 151 on March 1. Of those currently hospitalized, 16 are considered critically ill, up eight from last week.

The DPH is monitoring several COVID-19 variants in the state, reporting 108 total confirmed cases of variants.

Variant cases include 87 adults ranging in age from 18 to 84 years old, as well as 18 individuals under the age of 18. The age is currently unknown for three individuals, according to the DPH.

Seventy-five individuals are from New Castle County, 17 are from Kent County and 14 are from Sussex County. The county of residence is currently unknown for two individuals, the DPH said.

The DPH said its lab has sequenced 1,338 specimens for COVID-19 variant strains to date, including 184 within the past week.

The most common variant in Delaware is B.1.526, which originated in New York, and is considered a “Variant of Interest” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The DPH has confirmed 54 cases of it so far in Delaware.

Another variant which has recorded numerous cases in the state is B.1.1.7, which originated in the United Kingdom and is commonly referred to as the U.K. Variant. The DPH has found 41 cases of it, and it is considered a “Variant of Concern” by the CDC.

A total of 1,565 Delawareans have passed away due to complications from COVID-19, according to the DPH as of Thursday at 6 p.m.. The state reported 29 additional deaths since last week’s update, but a majority of which (25) were from a review of Vital Statistics records.

Delaware has administered 483,328 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, using information from the state’s immunization data system DelVAX as of 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.

A total of 170,877 persons are fully vaccinated, including 158,552 individuals who have received both doses of a two-dose vaccine series and 12,325 who received a one-dose series. An additional 153,960 were administered with the first dose of a two-dose series and are awaiting their second dose.