As Delaware’s daily new COVID-19 cases top 300, the Department of Public Health now is breaking down data according to whether the sick person is vaccinated or not.
The state report Friday follows national trends of health departments and even individual hospitals across the country doing the same thing.
Public Health reported Friday that the number of daily COVID hit 303.3 Thursday, on a seven-day average, with 165 people hospitalized. The hospitalization number is up 54 from last week, and 29 of them are critically ill, up 19.
Here’s how the cases from the week of Aug. 9 to Aug. 15 break down. The data shows that the unvaccinated overwhelmingly dominate new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Health officials repeatedly have blamed the Delta variant for the current rise in cases.
Among other things in Friday’s press release, the state also recommended testing after participating in large public gatherings such as a concert, community event or any event where social distancing is not possible and vaccination status of others is unknown. Those include birthday parties, off-to-college parties or weddings.
A list of testing locations can be found at de.gov/gettested. At-home test options are listed there, including take-home COVID-19 test kits available at Delaware libraries.
The take-home rapid antigen test kits give results in 15 minutes and can be kept at home in case someone develops symptoms.
If you have symptoms of COVID-19, do not come to a library for a test kit, the state says.
As of Thursday, the state has had 115,665 positive cases reported.
Some of those were breakthrough cases. The 1,236 breakthrough cases represent one-quarter of 1% of Delaware’s vaccinated people, the release said. Of that, 36 required hospitalization and 14 died, the release said.
A total of 1,851 Delawareans have died since March 2020. Four deaths were reported in the past week, the press release said.
Delaware now has 485,033 residents fully vaccinated. Among Delawareans 12 and older, 547,856 have received at least one dose of vaccine, which represents 74.8% of those eligible to receive a vaccine.
