By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Delaware recorded its highest single-day total of new COVID-19 cases since April 16 on Thursday.

The Delaware Division of Public Health reported 438 new cases of the virus in Thursday’s update. The state has averaged 303.3 new cases per day over the last week — the first time it has been over 300 since April 24.

Delaware’s total number of COVID-19 cases increased to 115,665 as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling average for percentage of positive tests rose to 7.9% — a number not seen since Jan. 24, during the height of the pandemic, when it was at 8.1%. The mark of 7.9% is as of Monday 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.

Kent County has the highest percent-positive rate with a seven-day rolling average of 10.8%, followed by Sussex County’s 8.7% and New Castle’s 6.7%. All three counties are above the World Health Organization’s recommended mark of 5%.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased to 165 in Thursday’s update. New Castle County tops the state in hospitalizations with 96, while Sussex County has 49 and there are 20 hospitalized in Kent County.

Of those currently hospitalized, 29 cases are considered critical, according to the DPH.

The DPH also announced two new COVID-19-related deaths on Thursday as the number of deaths increased to 1,851. Both individuals were unvaccinated, the DPH said.

Information on how many of the current hospitalizations are vaccinated was not available on Thursday. The DPH updates the vaccination status for new cases and hospitalizations each week on Friday evening.

The state had administered 1,091,585 total doses of the COVID-19 vaccines as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. A list of vaccination sites is available at de.gov/getmyvaccine.