In its Monday report, the Delaware Division of Public Health reported no new deaths from Covid-19.
This followed seven deaths from Covid-19 in the Saturday report. The high number of new cases appears to be driven by the faster-spreading gamma variant.
Hospitalizations rose above 250. Hospital stays have ranged from fewer to 50 to as high as 474 during the pandemic
Those who passed away included three residents of New Castle County, two from Kent County, and two from Sussex County.
They ranged in age from their 50s to their 90s. All seven had underlying health conditions, and none were residents of a long-term care facility. Five were not vaccinated; two were fully vaccinated.
Their deaths increased Delaware’s total number of COVID-related deaths to 1,920.
Separately, the University of Delaware is seeing a sharp drop in new Covid-19 cases after a recent spike. On Monday, only four new cases were reported. (See chart below from UD)
The Monday statewide numbers
- 454 new positive cases, bringing the overall total to 128,253.
- 7.7% of total tests were positive in the seven-day rolling average, down one-tenth of a percent from the previous day).
- 252 current hospitalizations, up seven from the previous day, including 44 individuals in critical condition.
- 11 new hospital admissions, down four from the previous day).
- 1,566 people tested negative, bringing the total to 684,072.
- 514,683 Delawareans fully vaccinated, up 957 from the previous day.
- 1,150,323 total vaccine doses administered, up 1,723 from the previous day).
- 77.6% of Delaware’s results have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
- 56.6% of the state’s population is fully immunized.
Driving up the number of new cases is the Delta variant.
As of Friday, the Division of Public Health has identified Delaware’s variants through routine surveillance of test specimens.
| Variants of Concern | Variants of Interest | |||||
| Variant | Origin | # of Cases | Variant | Origin | # of Cases | |
| Alpha/B.1.1.7 | United Kingdom | 1008 | Eta/B.1.525 | UK/Nigeria (formerly New York, US) | 2 | |
| Beta/B.1.351 | South Africa | 1 | Iota/B.1.526/B.1526.1 | New York, US | 352 | |
| Gamma/P.1 | Brazil | 64 | ||||
| Delta/B.1.617.2 | India | 797 | ||||
Of the test samples sequenced in the last week, 170 (73.9%) of the 230 test samples sequenced at the DPH Lab were positive for a variant strain, as were 74 additional specimens sequenced at an outside lab. Thus, this week, all but one of the 244 variant positive samples were identified as the Delta variant strain.
Public health officials are keeping a close eye on the Gamma strain, which led to a severe virus outbreak in Brazil.
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.
