By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — The Delaware Emergency Management Agency will not be scaling back its COVID-19 community testing sites despite a drop in demand, DEMA director A.J. Schall said.

Rather, state officials are encouraging Delawareans to keep getting tested even after they are vaccinated.

“The numbers are going down,” Mr. Schall said. “We do know with a large percentage of people who at least have one shot, we figured there would be a decrease in testing. However with spring break and people traveling and the increase in our positive rate, it’s important to keep getting tested when you are in situations when you could potentially spread to others.”

Delaware averaged 4,981 tests per day over the last seven days. That number was over 9,000 tests per day for a good portion of December and at times in January.

Mr. Scahll said the state processed 33,199 COVID-19 tests the week of April 3 to April 9 — down from 37,451 for the week of March 27 to April 2.

As testing has gone down, Delaware’s percent-positive rate has gone up. The seven-day rolling average for percentage of positive tests went to 6% in the Delaware Division of Public Health’s daily COVID-19 update on Wednesday.

The last time the rolling average was above 6% was Feb. 9 when it was at 6.1%. It was as low as 3.6% on March 11.

By increasing the amount of Delawareans getting tested, the denominator will be higher which could lead to a decline in the percent-positive rate. The last two days of available data recorded percent-positive rates of 7.8% (280 positives out of 3,582 tests) and 7.9% (252 of 3,193) which has contributed to the rise in the seven-day rolling average.

“Get tested as well just to help us with those numbers,” Gov. John Carney said.

For reference, the World Health Organization recommends a seven-day rolling average of 5%. The most recent figure of 6% is as of Sunday 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 DPH receives the test result.

Dr. Karyl Rattay, DPH director, said anyone who has traveled out of state should get tested three to five days after they return. She added anyone who has been around large crowds should also seek out testing to know their status.

“It really makes a difference in decreasing virus spread,” Dr. Rattay said.

Those who are vaccinated should still get tested if they think they have been exposed to the virus, Dr. Rattay said. A small percentage of fully vaccinated individuals (0.03%) have ended up testing positive for COVID-19 as the DPH reported 70 “breakthrough cases” on Tuesday.

A full list of testing sites is available at de.gov/gettested.

Delawareans can also request an at-home testing kit by visiting de.gov/hometest. A smartphone or computer is necessary for the at-home test, as is an email address. It is shipped directly to the tester’s house, done over the internet with a medical professional before it is mailed to a lab and results will be emailed.

Mr. Schall said the state is still doing about a few thousand at-home tests a week. But it was averaging close to a couple thousand a day during November, December and January.

“It’s not like it was in the late fall or early winter but it’s still an option,” Mr. Schall said. “It’s drastically dropped but the option is still there.”

The DPH reported 381 new positive cases in Wednesday’s report which reflects data as of Tuesday at 6 p.m. This brings the overall total to 99,515 positives.

COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by three compared to the previous day, up to 155. Fourteen of those cases are considered critical, according to the DPH.

The DPH announced four newly reported COVID-19-related deaths in Wednesday’s update, marking 1,591 total COVID-19-related deaths. One of the four was as a result of Vital Statistic records from March.

None of the four were residents of a long-term care center. Two were from Kent County while one each was from New Castle County and Sussex County. They ranged in age from 40 fo 103 years old.