LEWES, Del. -Â On Tuesday at the Lewes Board of Health meeting, members discussed COVID-19 numbers, city employee vaccinations, and the holidays. Beebe Healthcare's emergency physician Dr. Paul Cowan says the COVID-19 trend is better now than it was at the end of September.
Dr. Cowan says the Sussex County positivity rate still remains high at 7.4 percent, but it is stable. For instance, in September it was at 9 percent. All in all, he says the state is on the correct side of the curve.
According to the CDC, the decline of the delta variant is expected to be slower than the other waves, and will slowly trend down towards the holidays.
"5 percent is the number the CDC uses to suggest the rate of transmission is contained in the community, so we are kind of hoping for that," said Dr. Cowan.
He says COVID is getting a little better but is not dropping off quite yet.
At Beebe Healthcare "our hospitalization rates are trending down. They are down significantly from the maximum, we were probably at our maximum number of people being admitted sometime in early October. We are trending down from that, less than half of the number," said Dr. Cowan.
At Cape Henlopen School District, a majority of its employees are vaccinated, plus they are preparing for possible approval of the Pfizer vaccine for ages 5 to 11.
"There will be different sites throughout the week a couple different times over the next few weeks for families to bring their students if they choose to," said superintendent Bob Fulton.
For school employees who have not been vaccinated, their test results must be uploaded by this Friday, and the district is making sure testing options are available for them.
Fulton says at the high school there was not a case uptick after the homecoming parade and dance.
A month into the City of Lewes' employee vaccine mandate, out of the 54 employees, 41 are vaccinated and 13 are unvaccinated. Those 13 must show proof of weekly testing. Since the mandate went into effect, four employees got their vaccine.