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The record toll COVID-19 has exacted on Delaware this month has subsided a tad, but Gov. John Carney is bracing for another potential torrent of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from banned and discouraged gatherings over the holidays.
The state’s latest seven-day daily average of new coronavirus cases is 653. That’s a substantial drop from the record of 813 daily cases tallied just three weeks ago.
Hospitalizations had accelerated to a peak of 454 COVID patients a week ago but have since dropped to 827, with 60 patients in critical condition. As of Tuesday, 898 Delawareans had died of coronavirus-related causes since the first case was confirmed in March, state records show.
Authorities had blamed the early December surge on family and friends getting together before and on Thanksgiving Day. That led Carney to order bars and restaurants closed at 10 p.m. and schools restricted to online learning only from Dec. 14 to Jan. 11.
He also issued an order limiting in-home social gatherings to 10 people and urged people to avoid indoor gatherings with others outside their immediate households.
Officials will know during the first week of January “how well we did over the Christmas holiday,” Carney said during his weekly press briefing Tuesday, adding that this year was the first he couldn’t spend the day with his mother, who is now 89.