Gov. John Carney announced a goal Friday to begin the first phase of reopening Delaware on June 1st, and a plan to quadruple the state's testing capacity for COVID-19.
Carney’s Emergency Order has been extended and remains in effect until the end of the month as some businesses were allowed to open Friday in some limited capacity.
Carney reiterated at his Friday briefing the need for downward trending COVID-19 data as the state gradually reopens. The state has seen a gradual decline recently, but Carney says the outbreak among poultry workers in Sussex County is keeping the order in place.
“Can you open sooner? It looks like you have a 14 day trend already. And to that I would say: everything is trending down, but we have this really challenging situation in Sussex County,” said Carney.
Carney also notes the state still lacks an adequate amount of some personal protective equipment and other medical supplies.
The new reopening goal came as the Governor’s office announced the state’s purchase of 200,000 saliva-based tests from the Los Angeles-based testing company Curative. Those tests are scheduled to start arriving in Delaware Friday.
The goal is for Delaware’s hospitals, primary care practices, Federally Qualified Health Centers and community organizations to up the state’s testing to 80,000 tests a month.
State Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay says Delaware is looking to step up “sentinel surveillance” testing to try to identify asymptomatic spread of the virus.
“Our primary care physicians and our Federally Qualified Health Centers and pharmacies as well are going to play an important role - as are long-term care facilities - in helping us to know what the activity of this virus looks like in our communities, where are we seeing elevated positive cases,” said Rattay.
Priority testing will be forany symptomatic individual, anyone with known exposure to COVID-19, vulnerable Delaware populations and some front-line essential workers.
The state announced on Tuesday plans for universal COVID-19 testing for staff and residents in long-term care facilities statewide.
The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) will manage the state’s testing supply chain as the plan moves forward.
The Governor’s office says it will be releasing details about a new contact tracing program next week, including hiring workers to help manage self-isolation of COVID-19 positive Delawareans.
It also promisses more details on reopening next week, but said previously phase one leaves many restrictions in place. Restaurants and large venues could reopen with strict guidelines. Gyms could also reopen under strict social distancing and sanitation protocols.
This story has been updated.
