Delaware has passed its peak for its latest COVID-19 surge, though metrics continue to remain high compared to this time last year, the state’s top health official said Tuesday.
Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the state Division of Public Health, pointed to the rate of new cases, the percent of positive tests and hospitalizations all decreasing in recent weeks. Jan. 12, officials estimated, was the time when Delaware was at its worst point in the fight against COVID-19.
“All of those indicators show that we are on the other side of this omicron peak now,” she said during the state’s COVID-19 briefing. “In other words, we are headed down in a good way. And it seems to be decreasing rapidly.”
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Yet Delaware is still struggling to vaccinate its residents, particularly with booster shots. Rattay said during the briefing that Delaware lags in the bottom half of all states in booster uptake. Health officials are urging everyone ages 12 and older to get a booster shot.
Studies have shown, Rattay said during the briefing, that boosters are effective against the omicron variant, particularly with preventing symptomatic cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Despite getting over the hump of the surge, Delaware hospitals continue to be strained, with the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 still higher now than this time last year.
Many of the health systems continue to operate in crisis mode, with National Guard members being deployed to help in non-clinical roles.
The state has also seen a drop in demand for testing. The FEMA-operated mass testing site at the Delaware City DMV closed 11 days before schedule, which officials attributed to weather and demand issues.
A FEMA spokesman said the site was recently seeing demand for just 30% of its capacity.
Gov. John Carney acknowledged during the briefing that the state missed the initial testing surge window. That was in part, he said, because of the time it took for the federal request to get processed and set up.
“It ran its course pretty quickly,” Carney said. “With respect to testing, it’s looking forward. You always want to be a little bit ahead of it, but it’s hard to be ahead of it because … it kind of sneaks up on you at times.”
“Fortunately,” he said minutes later, “we’re on the other side of the peak – God willing.”
Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 256-2466 or at mnewman@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MereNewman.
