The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone aged six months and up get a new COVID-19 vaccine.
Delaware had 436 new COVID-19 cases the week of July 28. That’s up from 375 cases the week before. COVID has sent 36 people to the hospital in the state. Nine of these were new cases that were reported last week.
As a result, many cases are not recorded, says Stephen Eppes, Associate Infection Prevention Officer and Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at ChristianaCare. More people are testing and taking care of themselves at home.
Vaccination rates are also going down, and he says that everyone aged six months and up should get a new shot, especially now that kids are back in school.
Eppes says, “I’m not going to try to guess what will happen in three or four weeks. All I will say is that it could cause even more cases to rise.” “Then what is the best way for us to defend ourselves?” No, it’s a shot.
The state’s COVID dashboard shows that only 16.2 percent of the qualified population has a vaccine that is up to date for 2023–2024. This new COVID vaccine will be ready at the end of August or the beginning of September.
Eppes says, “No, we’re not on lockdown anymore, and we don’t have to wear masks everywhere we go. But we do need to be smart about it and know that the virus is still out there and can still make people sick, hospitalize them, put them in the ICU, or even kill them.”
Eppes says that kids younger than four are not properly protected against COVID; only 4% of those kids have had all of their main series of vaccines. Also, people aged 65 and up and people aged 50 to 64, are the third most likely group to need to go to the hospital if they get sick.
COVID is the first infectious disease killer of kids under four years old and the eighth killer of kids under four years old generally.
In a release, the Delaware Department of Public Health says that getting a flu shot is the best way to protect against both COVID and flu. You can get both the COVID-19 and flu shots at the same time.
