By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Delaware’s COVID-19 case rate decreased by 41% last week, as the state nears its goal of vaccinating 70% of residents by July 4.

Gov. John Carney said Tuesday the state is at 67.5% of Delawareans with at least one dose of vaccine, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

“There are already 13 states which have reached that goal,” Gov. Carney said. “We want to be right there with them. So let’s get going. Let’s get vaccinated.”

The amount of vaccinations has led to Delaware producing some of its lowest COVID-19 statistics of the pandemic. The seven-day rolling average of new positive cases is at 42.1 cases per day — lower than any point last summer.

For percentage of tests which are positive, the seven-day rolling average has hovered at or just above 2% this week. The most recent number is exactly 2%, which the state did not hit even during various dips last summer.

Testing has decreased with more vaccinations as the state recorded only 13,495 tests last week, but the percentage-positive rate is still falling, which is good news, says A.J. Schall, Delaware Emergency Management Agency director.

“Even with the fewer people getting tested, we still see the percent positive stays low,” Mr. Schall said.

“There is exciting news on the front of how we’re doing with infection in our state right now,” added Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Division of Public Health.

The number of individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 is up to 40, as of Monday at 6 p.m. It is one of the lowest totals of the year but up from 29 this past weekend, which tied Aug. 16, 2020 for the all-time low of the pandemic.

Of those currently hospitalized, seven cases are considered critical.

Gov. Carney said the state is in various discussions about when to lift the state of emergency order as statistics continue to improve.

“There is an ongoing conversation between the attorney general’s office and our office about the things we need to keep in place, for instance mask-wearing in state buildings and mask-wearing among children in schools,” Gov. Carney said. “There are some issues around the health care workforce, which have required emergency powers, some of which we are pursuing legislatively. But we need to get a better answer.”

The DPH did not report any new COVID-19-related deaths in Tuesday’s update as that number remained at 1,677. There were 20 new positive cases of the virus, bringing the overall total to 109,188.

Delaware has administered 940,258 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines as of Monday at 11:59 p.m. For a full list of vaccination sites, visit here.