A look at COVID cases on Delmarva

DELMARVA – Respiratory season is here and now health officials across Delmarva warn of the newest COVID strain.

The newest strain that is out, is a variant of Omicron, called EG.5 it accounted for 29.5% of recent COVID cases as of the end of September,” said Erin Howard with Atlantic General Hospital.

In Delaware COVID hospitalization numbers are rising, reaching about 67 hospitalizations per day which is 10% of what officials saw during peak COVID. “Those numbers have progressively increased since probably the first week of August. They are by far not to the numbers that we saw a couple of years ago,” said Dr. William Chasanov with Beebe Hospital.

In Maryland, health officials are also seeing an overall uptick but not significant to previous records. “For Worcester county specifically and for the state of Maryland, the overall hospital admissions are down and we are seeing for those that are admitted their length of stay is decreased as well as their severity,” Howard said.

Since respiratory season is just beginning – doctors want you to be cautious of other seasonal viruses. “There’s still the flu that we’ve been talking about for decades. We actually had an increasing number of those who are hospitalized especially kids around a virus called RSV,” said Dr. Chasanov.

To stay free of these viruses, here are some best practices: “Maintain good hand hygiene practices, staying home if you’re not feeling well, its always a good idea to get vaccinated this fall season for flu and covid,” Howard said.