Governor to Issue State of Emergency for Winter Surge |
Increases Use of National Guard in COVID-19 Surge |
Governor John Carney announced a new State of Emergency (SOE) declaration - effective Monday, January 3, 2022 - to combat the winter surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The new SOE declaration, which will be formally issued on Monday, will:
• Allow the State additional flexibility to respond to the winter surge of COVID-19.
• Enable members of the Delaware National Guard to work as certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in skilled nursing facilities to care for patients currently in Delaware hospitals.
Approximately 100 members of the Delaware National Guard are currently being trained to become CNAs. Governor Carney indicated the State of Emergency will not have a statewide mask mandate, although the state will encourage businesses to require customers to mask up. A mask mandate remains in effect in state-operated public facilities, public transit, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and health care facilities. The declaration also does not include vaccination checks at restaurants, business capacity limits, or other restrictions.
Governor Carney and the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) on Thursday also formally extended the Public Health Emergency order another 30 days to allow the State of Delaware and medical providers to continue COVID-19 vaccination and testing programs. Under Delaware law, Public Health Emergency declarations must be renewed every 30 days.
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DPH Reports Record Number of New Cases, Hospitalizations |
Some Data Not Available Due to Volume of Results/Time for Processing |
The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) reported the highest number of new positive daily cases since the start of the pandemic with 3,381 positive cases reported to the state Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021. In addition, the total number of current COVID-19 hospitalizations surpassed the record high this week with 485 individuals hospitalized as of Thursday, Dec. 30. The previous high was 474 on Jan. 12, 2021. Because of the rapid spread of COVID-19 and the contagiousness of the Omicron variant, DPH strongly encourages people not to gather with others outside of their household for New Year’s celebrations this weekend. Also, due to the large volume of COVID-19 lab results received recently by the Division of Public Health and the time needed to process the reported results into its database, some data typically reported in the weekly summary will not be available this week, specifically, the weekly summary of the proportion of unvaccinated/partially vaccinated cases, hospitalizations and deaths; variant and sequencing updates; and breakthrough case data. DPH will work to provide updates on these data next week.
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CDC Updates Travel Health Notice for Cruise Ship Travel |
All Travelers, Even Those Vaccinated, Should Avoid Cruises |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday that all travelers — even those who are vaccinated — should avoid cruises. The COVID-19 Travel Health Notice level was updated from Level 3 to Level 4, the highest level. This reflects increases in cases onboard cruise ships since identification of the Omicron variant. The agency indicated cruise lines reported 5,013 coronavirus cases on ships operating in US waters between December 15 and 29, a significant increase from the 162 cases reported over the previous two weeks.
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FDA Expected to Authorize Booster for Ages 12-15 |
Pfizer-BioNTech Booster Already Authorized for Those 16 and Older |
The Washington Post is reporting that a decision from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will come within days, authorizing Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots for 12-to-15-year-olds. Scheduling challenges related to the holidays may have delayed authorizing a third dose of the vaccine this week. The FDA decision would be reviewed by vaccine advisers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC Director Rochelle Walensky vowed to move quickly on recommending the booster shots if the CDC's advisers concurred with the FDA.
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Starting Saturday, January 1, 2022, Beebe Healthcare is updating its visitor restrictions to allow inpatients to have one well visitor per day from 2-7 p.m. at the Margaret H. Rollins Lewes Campus. This visitor may not rotate throughout the day. All visitors will be required to wear a surgical mask. This includes the Lewes Campus, the South Coastal Campus and Tunnell Cancer Center. As a continuation of Beebe’s existing policy, visitors are not permitted for COVID-19 patients and patients under suspicion for COVID-19 except for special circumstances. Additional considerations are made for labor & delivery, surgery patients, and end of life patients. Pediatric patients may have two well parents or caregivers.
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Due to increasing transmission rates of COVID-19 in the community, ChristianaCare is returning to limited visitation at its facilities in addition to continuing to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test not older than 72 hours for all visitors.
Effective Sunday, January 2, 2022, at 12:01 a.m., NO VISITORS ARE ALLOWED for hospitalized patients at Christiana, Union, and Wilmington Hospitals EXCEPT in certain circumstances .
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The information contained herein is solely informational, planned in accordance for a diverse membership audience. This communication reflects news and announcements that have been made available to MSD and is not intended to exclude other pertinent material. The content published is proposed to represent facts of interest and provide awareness to the members. MSD reserves the right to determine what information is relevant to its membership. |
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