COVID-19 Daily Briefing 5/8

May 8

DPH updates COVID-19 numbers for Friday, May 8

The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) announced 172 new positive cases have been confirmed and that 11 more Delawareans — 213 in all — have passed away due to complications from COVID-19. The deceased range in age from 26 to 103 years old.

As of May 8, the state’s COVID-19 case statistics cumulatively since March 11 include 6,111 total laboratory-confirmed cases — 2,184 of them in New Castle County, 963 in Kent County and 2,936 in Sussex County. The state said preliminary data based on reporting by state and commercial laboratories, indicate there have been 22,153 negative cases.

There are 289 Delawareans who are currently hospitalized. To date, 2,288 Delawareans who have tested positive have recovered.

YMCA continues food distribution efforts 

The YMCA of Delaware is distributing food at multiple sites throughout the state.  Community members will be able to pick up boxes of pre-packaged non-refrigerated/non-perishable food staples.

They are working with the Food Bank of Delaware to add distribution dates and locations. Please check back frequently for updates. Distribution will be from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m., or until supplies are depleted. 

• Wednesday, May 13 – Brandywine YMCA
• Wednesday, May 13 – Western YMCA
• Thursday, May 14 – Central YMCA
• Thursday, May 14 – Bear YMCA
• Thursday, May 14 – Dover YMCA
• Tuesday, May 19 – Sussex YMCA
• Thursday, May 21 – Middletown YMCA

Gov. Carney expands statewide testing program

As Delaware moves toward Phase I of an economic reopening, Governor Carney announced a significant expansion of Delaware’s statewide testing program for COVID-19. The planned expansion  will be implemented by Delaware’s hospital systems, primary care physicians, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and community organizations statewide.

The new testing program will allow the State of Delaware to conduct 80,000 tests monthly – over four times the current level of testing.

“We know that widespread community testing needs to be in place before we can safely reopen our economy,” said Governor Carney. “Finding a reliable supply of reliable tests has been a serious challenge, but we’ve put a plan in place that gets us to the starting line. We’ll be able to diagnose symptomatic Delawareans and detect asymptomatic spread through community testing. I want to thank all of our partners who are stepping up for their fellow Delawareans during this crisis.”

The State of Delaware has purchased 200,000 saliva-based tests from Curative, a Los Angeles-based testing company that has supplied COVID-19 tests to other areas of the country, and should begin arriving in Delaware today.