By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Delaware’s improving COVID-19 statistics hit another benchmark in Tuesday’s update as hospitalizations dropped below 200 for the first time since late November.

COVID-19 hospitalizations decreased by 14 compared to the day prior, down to 186 in Tuesday’s report, which reflects data as of Monday at 6 p.m. Of those currently hospitalized, 17 cases are considered critical, according to the Delaware Division of Public Health.

The mark reported on Tuesday is as low as hospitalizations have been since they were at 183 on Nov. 23. The number of individuals hospitalized with the virus has dropped by 248 in the last 30 days.

Delaware also posted its lowest number of new positive cases since Nov. 3 with 126 in Tuesday’s report.

Gov. John Carney said, based on his talks with mayors and local leaders, the downward trend in COVID-19 statistics is in large credit to Delawareans’ compliance with the state’s mitigation efforts

“People are getting tired of it, but we’re seeing positive results,” Gov. Carney said at a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday. “The most positive result of course is hospitalizations.”

“We still have a ways to go,” Gov. Carney added. “We’re still not out of this yet.”

DPH Director Dr. Karyl Rattay said only five ZIP codes recorded a new positive case rate of more than 400 new cases per 100,000 people last week — Harrington, Georgetown, Harbeson, Frankford and the 19804 ZIP code, which encompasses Newport and Stanton.

Harrington had the highest percentage of positive tests for the week of Feb. 6 to Feb. 12 with a mark of 11.3%. The only other ZIP code with a percent-positive mark of more than 10% was Laurel which was at 10.9%.

“We just want to make sure that people are cautious,” Dr. Rattay said. “Even though we’re doing better, there’s still a lot of infection around.”

The DPH reported eight newly announced COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the state’s total to 1,291. The eight deaths ranged in age from 65 to 102 years old.

Five were residents of Sussex County while the other three were from New Castle County. Five were residents of a long-term care center, increasing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in long-term care facilities to 664 (51%).

New Castle County has recorded the most COVID-19-related deaths with 617, followed by Sussex County’s 402 and Kent County’s 272.

Since March 11, there have been a total of 83,369 positive COVID-19 cases in Delaware.

Staff writer Tim Mastro can be reached at tmastro@newszap.com.

Follow @TimMastroDSN on Twitter.