WILMINGTON — The number of individuals seeking out COVID-19 testing in the latter part of January was even higher than state officials expected.

A.J. Schall, director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, said DEMA was expecting a drop in testing after the holiday surge. But 55,516 tests were done between Jan. 16-22, followed by 49,274 tests for the week of Jan. 23-29.

“The demand is there,” Mr. Schall said. “We expected to see a decrease in the two weeks post-New Year’s. But it’s still up. It’s something to be proud of.”

There have been a total of 1,249,291 COVID-19 tests administered in Delaware, among 590,313 unique persons, as of Tuesday at 6 p.m., according to the Delaware Division of Public Health.

“People are dialed in. They’re paying attention. They’re going out and getting tested at these incredible rates,” Gov. John Carney said. “They’re thinking about whether they’ve been exposed or not. They’re thinking about maybe they have something coming up where they have to be cautious about family members. That’s a really, really good thing. In addition to the mask-wearing compliance that I see, really across the board, add this on top of that, and I just feel really good that people are dialed in, and they’re paying attention. They understand what it takes, and these testing numbers bear that out.”

One thing that has decreased in regard to testing is the turnaround time for results. That is now under 48 hours, Mr. Schall said, after the average time rose to about 72 hours during the holiday season in late December.

This week’s numbers are not expected to be as high as the previous two weeks due to the winter storm that started Sunday. The state canceled all Curative Inc. testing sites Monday, and some were canceled Tuesday, as well.

“We know this week will be much lower,” Mr. Schall said.

He added that if a testing site was canceled due to snow, it will be back at the same scheduled site at some point next week.

Registration for a Curative testing site can be done by visiting delaware.curativeinc.com. For a full list of COVID-19 testing sites, visit de.gov/gettested.