PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — First, the Pfizer vaccine. Now, the Moderna vaccine has Delaware Gov. John Carney feeling optimistic. But he's not all smiles right now.
"We have good news and bad news," Carney said to kick off his Tuesday coronavirus briefing.
The bad news, he said, is that hospitalizations in the state are rising, reaching 433 now.
To put that into perspective, Delaware had just 29 hospitalizations in August and 107 at the start of November.
"To the first of December almost tripled to 306," explained Carney. "And now running up through just three weeks in December from 306 to 433."
He said hospitals in the state have at least been managing this well.
The good news, he said, is that the vaccines have now arrived.
"Help is finally on the way," Carney said.
Last week, Delaware received its first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine and began administering doses soon after. Close to 4,000 doses have been given since.
"The majority of those doses were administered by health systems," said Dr. Rick Hong, medical director of Delaware's Division of Public Health. "We did provide vaccines to long-term care staff as well and other frontline workers."
More Pfizer shipments are expected this week to go along with the 16,700 Moderna shipments Delaware is expecting before the week is over. Some of those shipments have already arrived.
"Many of them were shipped directly to hospitals and FQHCs as enrolled vaccine providers, with the remainder to division of public health for our EMS folks," said Hong.
Delaware announced a vaccine hotline last week where you can get your vaccine questions answered.
