Delaware now has confirmed 19 cases of coronavirus, with the first in Kent County now confirming that all three counties in the state have cases.
The Kent County patient is also hospitalized in critically ill condition, the first case to reach that status, Secretary of Health and Social Services Dr. Kara Walker said in an online briefing Wednesday morning.
Seventeen of the 19 cases are in New Castle County, while one case is in Sussex County.
On Tuesday, the Delaware Department of Public Health (DPH) announced another eight cases were confirmed, and among them are a Wilmington Public Works employee, a DuPont employee at its Chestnut Run site and a staff member at the EastSide Charter School in Wilmington. Milford School District said Wednesday that one patient is a parent of Benjamin Banneker Elementary School and Avenue Preschool students.
“Today I’m asking you all to do more,” Walker told citizens, noting that all should act as if they have the coronavirus in order to protect those vulnerable in our society, especially the elderly and immune-compromised. “We don’t have much time left to try to flatten the curve.”
“We’re all experiencing a profound shock to our sense of normalcy,” Walker said, noting the state has largely shut down in a week.
Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Department of Public Health, stressed adhering to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines on social distancing and watching for symptoms, especially fever.
“This may be a way that we have to adapt our lives to living for a while,” she said.