DOVER — The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) added four more COVID-19-related deaths to Delaware’s total on Monday, increasing that number to 604.
The four new deaths came after a review of death certificate records from the Delaware Vital Events Registration System (DelVERS) and comparing that information to epidemiological surveillance data, the DPH said. They were not previously reported to DPH through standard procedures, according to the DPH.
The DPH said it conducts periodic reviews such as this to “ensure that DPH is accurately capturing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths based on both epidemiology surveillance and death certificate data.”
The four newly reported deaths involve one female and one male from New Castle County and two males from Sussex County, the DPH said. They ranged in age from 78 to 89 years old.
New Castle County has now had 299 COVID-19-related deaths, followed by 196 in Sussex County and 109 in Kent County.
Three of the four newly announced deaths were residents of long-term care facilities, according to the DPH. There have been 367 COVID-19 related deaths in long-ter care facilities — 60.7% of all of Delaware’s COVID-19 related deaths.
The DPH said it is unknown if any of the newly added deaths had underlying conditions.
The DPH also announced 68 new positive cases of the virus in its daily report, bringing the state’s total to 16,942. By county, New Castle County still leads the way with 7,865 cases, Sussex County has had 6,249 cases, Kent County has had 2,553 cases and there are 275 cases where the county not yet known, according to the DPH.
Current COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by six to 38, with seven listed as critical
The DPH reported a percentage of persons testing positive of 4% on Monday, with a seven-day rolling average of 4.4%.
There were an additional 36 recoveries, bringing that total to 8,972. There were also 1,609 people who tested negative, increasing that total to 206,559, according to the DPH.
All numbers via the DPH reflect data as of Sunday at 6 p.m.