DELAWARE IN A “SPRINT” TO VACCINATE
January 13, 2021
“Today we are announcing plans that we are calling a ‘sprint to vaccinate,’” said Division of Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay in today’s virtual briefing on Delaware’s response to COVID19. According to DPH, the state has received a total of nearly 59,000 doses of a combination of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, of which almost 27,000 doses have reportedly been administered. Dr. Rattay says six weekend “drive-through” vaccination events will be hosted at DMV’s throughout the state this month to help get larger volumes of people vaccinated. “We are really eager to get all health care workers who have not yet gotten their vaccination to get vaccinated at one of these events.”
File Photo: Dr. KARYL RATTAY answers questions regarding Delaware’s response to coronavirus disease during a press briefing in the auditorium Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, at Carvel State Office building in Wilmington, DE. Photo By Saquan Stimpson
DPH also announced that vaccinations will become available over the next three weeks at a number of Rite Aid, Walgreens, Giant, Albertsons and CVS stores while DPH is planning a vaccination reservation system for Phase 1a providers. A.J. Schall, Director of Delaware’s Emergency Management Agency added that they are working to expand the current Curative testing partnership to vaccinations, with the goal of having three Curative sites across Delaware to help in the State’s efforts to increase people’s access to getting vaccinated. “This is all preparing us well for (Phase) 1b to have lots of options and opportunities for people to get vaccinated,” said Dr. Rattay. As for vaccine access and the Phase timeline moving forward, the state says DPH will notify the public when the next phase of vaccinations will be occurring through press releases, their social media, and their website at de.gov/covidvaccine.
File Photo: Delaware Emergency Management, Director AJ SCHALL answers questions regarding Delaware’s response to coronavirus disease during a press briefing in the auditorium Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, at Carvel State Office building in Wilmington, DE. Photo By Saquan Stimpson
According to DPH, the total number of reported positive cases of COVID19 is now over 66,000 with nearly 1,000 total lives lost. There are reportedly 473 people currently hospitalized in the state of Delaware due to COVID19, an all-time high since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. “As much as we’re hitting the high water mark right now for COVID patients, we see the hospitals managing their other capacity to really meet the demand of the COVID patients,” said Schall. “It’s a good and bad situation. It means they’re managing what they need to with the COVID patients, but it also unfortunately probably means there’s other people with delayed care.”
Summary by: Mikaelyn Austin