As Delta cases rise, Carney sets COVID-19 press conference Thursday

This Abbott Laboratories at-home COVID-19 test kit is available at Delaware libraries.

With COVID-19 cases once again shooting up thanks to the Delta variant, Gov. John Carney has set a COVID-19 briefing Thursday.

He and Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Division of Public Health, will speak online at 11:30 a.m. See it here.

Carney had canceled his weekly briefings before the Fourth of July, allowing his COVID-19 emergency order to expire July 13.

The number of new COVID-19 cases has risen from about 20 a day on June 25, a low point as vaccinations rose and the winter surge dwindled, to 124 on Wednesday.

The number of those hospitalized on June 25 was 23, and that number rose but stayed around 30 until Wednesday when it popped up to 53. Nine of those are considered critical.

With the most infectious Delta variant hitting the unvaccinated particularly, Carney and Public Health on Tuesday issued new guidelines that said that unvaccinated people must be tested once a week. That will help the state track infections and keep Delta from spreading, a press release said.

The state also announced that at-home testing kits are available at state libraries for anyone to pick up.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week recommended that even the vaccinated wear masks indoors in areas with large numbers of unvaccinated, Carney and the state have not issued any guidelines to that effect.

Delaware’s COVID-19 dashboard also says that 72.9% of those eligible for vaccination have had at least one shot. That means 55.5% of the total population has had at least one shot.

Nationally, health officials say they are seeing more interest in vaccination.

Locally, parents are wondering how all this will affect students going back to school in the next few weeks.

Betsy Price

Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.