Statistics review finds nine uncounted COVID deaths in Delaware

By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Twelve new COVID-19-related deaths were announced by the Delaware Division of Public Health on Wednesday, nine of which were due to a review of Vital Statistics records from March, June and July.

Eleven of the 12 were not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The 12 individuals ranged in age from 44 to 85 years old.

One individual did not have an underlying health condition.

Four were residents of a long-term care facility. Long-term care centers have made up 830 of the state’s 1,869 COVID-19-related deaths — a mark of 44%.

The three recently deceased, which were not part of the statistics review, were not residents of long-term care centers. The fully vaccinated individual was one of these three.

Seven of the 12 were from New Castle County, four were residents of Sussex County and one was from Kent County.

New Castle has recorded the most COVID-19-related deaths with 928, followed by Sussex County’s 553 and Kent’s 388.

The number of individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 increased to 191, more than at any point during a surge in the spring. It is the highest total since Feb. 17 when the state was coming down from the peak of COVID-19 which resulted in an all-time high of 474 hospitalizations on Jan. 12.

Hospitalizations due to the virus have increased by 157 over the last 30 days.
Of those currently hospitalized, 29 cases are considered critical, according to the DPH. All hospitalization data is as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Delaware is averaging 335.3 new positive cases of COVID-19 per day over the last week. There were 351 cases reported in Wednesday’s update, bringing the state’s total to 117,587.

The state’s seven-day rolling average for percentage of positive tests is at 7.4%, which is down from 8% four days prior. All data related to percentage of positive tests 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.

Kent County has the highest positivity rate with a seven-day rolling average of 8.9%. Sussex County is next with a mark of 8.4%, followed by New Castle County, which is at 6.8%.

An additional 703 people tested negative for COVID-19 as the state’s total increased to 658,951.

Delaware has administered 1,104,148 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. For a list of vaccination sites, visit de.gov/getmyvaccine.