Carney says Delaware 'on other side' of COVID peak

Mask mandate will remain

By Tim Mastro
Posted 1/25/22

WILMINGTON — Delaware’s indoor mask requirement will remain for now, amid improving COVID-19 statistics.

The state posted its lowest number of daily new cases of the month, according …

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Carney says Delaware 'on other side' of COVID peak

Mask mandate will remain

Posted

WILMINGTON — Delaware’s indoor mask requirement will remain for now, amid improving COVID-19 statistics.

The state posted its lowest number of daily new cases of the month, according to the Delaware Division of Public Health’s report Tuesday. There were 970 cases — the first time Delaware was below 1,000 since Dec. 27.

Hospitalization statistics are improving as well. DPH reported 550 individuals hospitalized with the virus, as the state has come down from the peak of the winter surge when it set a record of 759 on Jan. 12.

“We’re on the other side of the peak at the moment, hopefully permanently,” Gov. John Carney said Tuesday at the state’s COVID-19 press briefing.

He hopes to continue to see a decrease in these numbers to help get the state into a position where he can lift the mask mandate.

“Not a day longer than we need it, the question is how long is that?” Gov. Carney said. “We’ll continue to look at that hospital number and the conditions in the hospitals.”

Delaware is still experiencing higher spread of COVID-19 compared to last year.

The peak of hospitalizations in January 2021 was 474 while the daily positive case record was 1,215 on Jan. 6, 2021.

Delaware’s seven-day rolling average of new positive cases has been over the 3,000 mark for most of this month but is now down to 1,643 new cases per day.

“It’s great to see some of our numbers improving,” said DPH director Dr. Karyl Rattay. “I think it is important to remember that there is still a lot of COVID circulating in our state. While our numbers are improving, our case and hospital rates are still much higher than they were this time last year.”

Gov. Carney added the masking requirement in schools will remain after the statewide indoor mandate is lifted.

Delaware’s schools have required masks since the beginning of this academic year.

“We want to keep our kids in school,” Gov. Carney said. “Teachers want them to be there, they know they have to be there and we know they have to be there so people can go to work. It’s such an incredibly important thing.”

DPH also announced nine COVID-19-related deaths in Monday’s report, bringing the state’s total to 2,489.

Six of the nine were unvaccinated, DPH said. All nine had underlying health conditions.

The nine individuals ranged in age from 57 to 88 years old. None were residents of a long-term care facility, as the number of COVID-19-related deaths among long-term care center residents remained at 895 (36%).

Delaware is averaging 4.3 COVID-19-related deaths per day over the last week which is down from a recent peak of 7.4 per day on Jan. 18. The previous high before that was 7.9 deaths per day on Feb. 13, 2021.

All statistics via DPH reflect data as of Monday at 6 p.m.

There were 40 COVID-19-related deaths reported last week which does not include 21 added to Delaware’s total due to a review of Vital Statistics records.

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