Delaware is seeing a flattening in new Covid-19 cases. The hope is that the state can avoid another surge after the December holidays.
Hospitalizations remain on the rise. Hospitalizations in Delaware stood at 454 on Wednesday night, compared to 433 a day earlier. The number of people in critical condition was 64, up slightly from a day earlier.
“We cannot afford to have another run-up,” Gov. John Carney said at a weekly Covid-19 briefing on Tuesday. Carney said hospital capacity while adequate for now is in the “danger zone.”
The biggest issue is staffing with some frontline workers once again facing the surge in cases.
Aiding hospitals has been a lower overall patient population, which has left more room available. Hospitals are limiting elective procedures as a way to free up staff and space.
Hospitals are also seeing fewer patients on ventilators as treatment methods improve.
State Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay said the surge in hospitalizations was due to spreading events tied to Thanksgiving celebrating. Rattay said contract tracing indicated that up to 50 percent of those who attended larger gatherings ended up testing positive.
Rattay said one area seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases was Delaware City, which saw a 36 percent rate of positive cases. Other hotspots include Townsend, Frankford and New Castle. Rattay emphasized that every area of the state is seeing a surge in cases.
Figures, as of Monday night, from the Delaware Division of Public Health, showed more than 52,000 cases in a state with an estimated population of about 975,000.
About 1,900 of the more than 52,000 individuals were presumed to be Covid-19 positive under epidemiology standards but did not undergo testing. Testing was not always available during the early stages of the pandemic.
The state is now seeing an average of about 600 positive tests each day, several times the 100 or so reported in the summer, but below peak figures that were running 900 or more a day in recent weeks.
The percentage of positive tests to total tests remains above nine percent. The positive test to total test figure takes into account people who have been tested more than once. Of people taking the test for the first time, about 22 percent are positive.
Both test indicators show the virus is widespread in the state.
Some critics blame stepped up testing for the higher rate. But epidemiologists say more testing would show lower percentages of cases of the virus if its spread was not accelerating.
The number of deaths remained unchanged at 872.
Delaware’s death toll exceeds that of Taiwan – 763 deaths in a nation of 24 million and Norway, 404 deaths in a nation of five million.
Below is an interactive dashboard of Covid-19 cases in the state from the Division of Public Health. For more data, including breakdowns by age, sex, race/ethnicity, at the statewide, county, and, in some cases, ZIP code or census tract level, click here.
