In its weekly Covid-19 summary, the Delaware Division of Public Health reported a record number of daily cases as well as a growing number of new infections, hospitalizations, critical cases, and instances of the fast-spreading omicron variant.
DPH reported the highest number of new positive daily cases since the start of the pandemic with 1,393 positive cases as of Thursday. The previous record high was 1,241 on Jan 6 of this year.
As Delaware faces a winter surge of Covid-19 cases, holiday gatherings over the next week could contribute to the spread. DPH urged those who don’t feel well, regardless of a positive test, to stay home and not host or attend a holiday gathering.
Other data
- Total positive cases since March 11, 2020: 170,009
- Seven-day average of new positive cases: 857.4, up from 668.7 last week
- Seven-day average for the percentage of total positive tests: 10.9%, an increase from 9.8% last week
- Hospitalizations: 401, an increase of 42 from last week. The all-time high is 474.
- Critically ill: 52, an increase of 10 from last week
- Total Covid-19 deaths: 2,271
- Total Covidd-19 deaths reported since last week: 37, including 19 from a review of vital statistics records.
COVID-19 Vaccinations:
- Total number of doses administered in Delaware: 1,528,125
- Percentage of Delawareans 5+ who have received at least one dose (CDC data): 80.6%
- Percentage of Delawareans 12+ who have received at least one dose (CDC data): 86.2%
- Percentage of Delawareans 18+ who received at least one dose (CDC data): 88.2%
- Percent of Delawareans who are fully vaccinated (CDC data): 63.9%
Covid vaccination status
The following report captures a weekly breakdown of vaccination status for cases, deaths, and hospitalizations for the time frame for Dec. 13 – Dec. 19. The report highlights the percentage of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals who account for Delaware’s cases and hospitalizations.
| Weekly Overview (12/13 -12/19) | |
| Unvaccinated Cases | |
| Total unvaccinated / partially vaccinated Cases | 3617 |
| Total cases | 4986 |
| Percent of unvaccinated / partially vaccinated cases | 73% |
| Hospitalizations | |
| Unvaccinated / Partially Vaccinated Hospitalized Cases | 144 |
| Total Hospitalized Cases | 185 |
| Percent of unvaccinated / partially vaccinated hospitalized cases | 78% |
| Deaths | |
| Unvaccinated / partially vaccinated Covid-19 deaths | 14 |
| Total COVID-19 Deaths | 19 |
| Percent of unvaccinated / partially vaccinated Covid-19 deaths | 74% |
Breakthrough cases (since vaccinations began):
- Total breakthrough cases: 9,858 or 1.7% of fully vaccinated individuals
- Total breakthrough hospitalizations: 150
- Total breakthrough deaths: 120
A breakthrough case is defined as testing positive for Covid-19 after an individual has been fully vaccinated for two weeks or more.
Covid-19 variant cases in Delaware:
During the week of Dec. 16 – Dec. 22, a total of 416 test samples were sequenced through routine surveillance of test specimens. Of those test samples, 274 (65.9%) sequenced at the DPH Lab were positive for a variant strain, as were six additional specimens sequenced at an outside lab. Out of the 280 variant positive samples, A total of 247 were identified as the Delta strain, and 33 were identified as the Omicron strain. To date, a total of 37 cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in Delaware.
The Delaware Public Health Laboratory and other laboratories regularly monitor for the presence of COVID-19 variants, including Delta and Omicron, through routine genomic sequencing of test specimens. Genome sequencing is a public health surveillance tool used to monitor the prevalence of variants; it is not used to diagnose individuals with a specific strain, as treatment recommendations do not differ based on variant strains. Covid-19 tests identify current infections, but do not identify a specific variant of the virus the individual might have.
