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This page offers all of Delaware Public Media's ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it is affecting the First State. Check here regularly for the latest new and information.

1 new coronavirus-related death, 145 new cases as officials announce field hospital plan

Delaware announced one more coronavirus-related death and 145 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. 

There have been 16 virus-related deaths so far in the state — and 928 lab-confirmed cases.

The most recent death involves a 67-year-old?man from Sussex County who had underlying health conditions and was hospitalized.?

Director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency A.J. Schall said during a press briefing Tuesday the state is assuming 20 percent of lab-confirmed cases will require hospitalization.  

As of Tuesday, there are 147 people hospitalized for the virus, with 52 critically ill. Public health officials are now reporting hospitalizations of both?Delaware and non-Delaware residents in Delaware's hospitals.?

“We’re expecting [the number of hospitalizations] to go up everyday," said Schall. "If we look at that, the 20 percent, [on] April 12th would be about 650 people in the hospitals. At that point, five days from now, the hospitals would still be managing within their walls, with their staff, very comfortably, let’s put it that way."

The projection the state is using puts lab-confirmed cases at at just over 3,200 on April 12.

Surge capacity for non-coronavirus patients is being prepared at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and the Governor Bacon Health Center in Delaware City. 

The state also plans a mobile hospital to handle a surge in Kent and Sussex Counties.  Officials say it would likely be deployed by the Delaware National Guard on the campus of an existing hospital in those counties. 

The mobile hospital could accommodate 50-60 non-coronavirus patients — or fewer if it is used for coronavirus patients. 

 

Schall says emergency management officials are communicating with the healthcare community several times per week.

“I was honest with them the other day," said Schall. "I said, I hope we put beds in parts of our buildings we’ve never needed them. I hope we build a mobile hospital and we never have to put one person in there, because that’s good for Delaware, but neither do I want to not have it ready when we need it.”

 
State public health director Dr. Karyl Rattay said during Tuesday's press briefing that the virus is spread by asymptomatic people more commonly than experts initially believed — and that cloth masks may help reduce this.
 

“If it’s difficult to stay six feet away from an individual, like ... [at] the grocery store, then it makes sense to use a cloth mask to prevent spreading the infection to others," she said.

Schall said the state expects to see the any impact of the Governor’s stay-at-home order roughly 21 days after it was enacted. It went into effect March 24. 

 

“In the long-term, our effectiveness in flattening that curve, we’ll see,” said Carney. “Did we do it soon enough? Was it effective enough? Did people practice appropriate behaviors enough? [We’ll see] as we see these cases arise—positive cases and hospitalizations.”

 

Carney updated his State of Emergency order Monday to ban short-term rentals, including hotels, motels, vacation homes and condos, through May 15th. 

 

The updated order also bans door-to-door solicitation and orders pawn shops, video game stores and other electronics retailers closed.

 

Carney says such measures taken to try to stem the spread of the virus in Delaware were a balancing act. 

 

“It’s a combination of the science from the experts, and recommendations from public health officials and the CDC— balancing that out with the resistance of businesses and members of the public— and just figuring out when to make that call.” 

 

“I think what we can lean into more than anything is the enforcement side of it,” he added.

 
Correction: There were 147 hospitalizations announced on Tuesday, not Monday.
This story has been updated.

 

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
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