Governor John Carney held a press conference Tuesday afternoon where he addressed the spike in COVID-19 cases across the state.
Currently, new positive cases and hospitalizations have increased across the state with 572 new COVID-19 cases, 296 hospitalizations, 34 of them critical.
The state has a target of 5-percent for new positive COVID-19 cases, but currently the data stands at 8.7-percent, almost twice the state’s goal which Governor Carney said was due in part to less testing across the state.
“We are up now on a seven day moving average,” Governor Carney explained. “That number of positive cases jumps up and down, mostly up in recent days, but now it’s approaching 600 to give you some idea when we stopped doing our press conferences in late summer we were in the twenties in terms of new positive cases on a seven moving day average, so a significant uptick.”
Governor Carney contributed the surge in cases to the Delta variant and the fact that the weather is colder and more people are venturing indoors and taking less precautions.
“Now, after Thanksgiving, as we started to move into the December holidays, people moving back indoors, it’s cold outside, people are circulating, a lot of people vaccinated but not taking the precautions that they were before because they are vaccinated and there is a greater comfort level there,” said Governor Carney. “We need to stamp down this surge we are seeing and keep our families safe.”
A total of 1.4 million vaccines have been administered in Delaware with a total of 602,585 citizens across the state fully vaccinated. State officials continue to push vaccination for those who have not received the jab, and boosters for those who have been fully vaccinated for at least six months.
“We need to get more people to get those shots,” Governor Carney continued. “Get your second shots if you’ve only had your first. Pharmacies is the best place now, everybody has adequate supplies, sometimes you’ve got to get an appointment to get your vaccination or your booster, and a lot of people haven’t received their booster, now is the time to do it as we move into the holidays.”
Delaware marked a milestone Tuesday when the state’s total number of deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 2,200.