SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. — COVID-19 cases are on the rise across Delaware, as the holiday season approaches, and health experts are attributing the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases to families gathering indoors for the holiday season.
"Generally we see higher incidents of infectious diseases through the winter months in average year, and certainly just last year during the pandemic, we expected a significant bump during this time of the year," Dr. John Fink, Bayhealth Hospital, Kent campus, said.
"We had a significant spike after the holiday season, so early January, mid-January is when we saw some of our highest numbers statewide," he added.
Doctors compared this year's data to last year's and found a trend. Dr. Rick Hong, the medical director of the Delaware department of public health, says the *delta variant is the most prevalent strain of the virus in Delaware. Dr. Hong says ventilation during the warmer months may be a reason numbers were lower in the summer, but now that people are back indoors, numbers are creeping up again.
"We recommend you should to get tested when in high-risk activities, should as family gatherings, especially around folks that have no been vaccinated, then you should get tested."
Dr. Hong says there are a few measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 this holiday season:
- Social distancing when gathering indoors
- Getting the COVID-19 vaccination & booster shot
- Getting tested through rapid-antigen testing, or at testing sites before and after the holidays
WRDE reached out to Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, and they did not comment on the rising number of cases. Dr. Bill Chasanov of Beebe Healthcare said there are no confirmed cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant in the state of Delaware.
