By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Delaware’s seven-day rolling average for new daily positive COVID-19 cases continued its fall after a surge earlier this month.

The new daily case average is down to 253.7 new cases per day — the lowest mark since 250.4 on March 27. The peak of the recent surge came on April 17 when the state was averaging 374.1 new cases per day, but it has declined 10 days in a row.

The Delaware Division of Public Health reported 194 new positives in Thursday’s update, reflecting data as of Wednesday at 6 p.m. This brings the overall case total to 104,038 since the start of the pandemic.

Delaware’s seven-day rolling average for percentage of positive tests remained at 5.4% for the third straight day, just slightly above the World Health Organization’s recommended mark of 5%. The most recent percentage 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.

COVID-19 hospitalizations increased for the first time this week, going up by seven to 156. Of those currently hospitalized, 15 cases are considered serious according to the DPH.

The DPH announced two additional COVID-19-related deaths in Thursday’s report, increasing the state’s total to 1,624. The two individuals were both 74 years old and were not residents of a long-term care facility. One was from Sussex County while the other was from New Castle County.

Delaware has administered 735,972 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, according to the state’s immunization data tracking system DelVAX as of Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.

A total of 319,585 individuals have been fully vaccinated in Delaware, including 287,444 Delawareans. Non-residents can be vaccinated in Delaware as long as they work in Delaware or receive their healthcare in the state.

An additional 129,864 total persons have been partially vaccinated in Delaware and are awaiting their second dose of a two-dose vaccine series.