Delaware saw another week of concerning COVID-19 case numbers.
Eleven Delawareans died of complications from the virus, lifting the state’s death toll to 642.
Hospitalizations for the virus reached their highest point since late June. 83 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, a 57 percent increase from last week. Sixteen were critically ill.
The number of new cases each day has trended upward for two weeks. The 7-day average of new daily cases stood at 122.3 Thursday.
And the percent testing positive has been trending up for a month. The weekly average stood at 7.9 percent Thursday, up from 6.8 a week ago.
The state is also monitoring outbreaks of the virus at long-term care facilities, including three that have seen significant cases.
Cadia Healthcare Silverside in North Wilmington saw its resident case count grow by 22 this week to 41 over the past two weeks. There are also less than 20 staff members there that have tested positive. The facility had less than 10 staff members COVID-19 positive last week.
Wilmington’s Kentmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center reached 46 cases, up 18 from last week. It also has 27 staff cases.
And Country Rest Home in Greenwood now has 26 COVID positive residents, an increase of 8 over the past week. Fifteen staff there have tested positive.
Some facilities are using point-of-care antigen testing on residents, which the Div. of Public Health says occasionally yields false positives. So, DPH is requesting patients that get a positive result from antigen testing have it confirmed by an independent test processed at the state lab.
DPH says that if confirmatory testing decreases in the total number of positive cases at these cases, it will update on its statistics, but says thet still considere these "significant outbreaks" at these facilities.
