WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Delaware on Sunday become one of the latest U.S. states declared a major disaster area by President Donald Trump amid the new coronavirus outbreak, giving the state access to more federal assistance to confront the outbreak.
Trump’s announcement was the latest in a series of major disaster declarations around the country. The declaration makes more federal funds available to state and local governments and some private nonprofits to pay for emergency protective measures, among other direct assistance.
The declaration came as Delaware health officials reported more than 670 positive COVID-19 cases in the state, an increase of 80 cases compared to Saturday. The number of deaths remained at 14, and about 100 hospitalizations.
Also Sunday, the president declared South Dakota a major disaster area with 240 confirmed cases and 2 deaths, and Mississippi with more than 1,600 cases and 43 deaths. And recently, he approved major disaster declarations for Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Maine - in addition to several others earlier.
In developments Sunday, a second correctional officer at Delaware’s largest state prison tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Department of Correction. The latest officer at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center with the virus was assigned to the maximum security housing area. The officer started feeling bad last Tuesday, received a test and remained at home. Officers who worked with the officer over the past 14 days are being told self-isolate and check for symptoms, the department said in a news release.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, and the vast majority survive. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause pneumonia or death.
Up to 20 emergency workers at a volunteer fire department are in self-quarantine because they responded to calls in which the person didn’t disclose that they had tested positive, the department’s president wrote.
Claymont Fire Company President Tom DiCristofaro asked the community to share more information to emergency workers responding to ambulance calls, The News Journal of Wilmington reported Sunday.
“Please, don’t make our job any harder or more stressful” than it already is, he wrote in a Facebook post. He said the fire company’s already thin numbers will be stretched further because of the quarantine.
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