Schools in Delaware will remain closed through the remainder of the school year, Governor John Carney announced Friday.

"One of the things that that is clear to us now as we look at the data, particularly the increasing number of cases in in Sussex County...Today, we're making it official that the schools will remain closed for students through the end of this school year," the governor said. "But we expect that schools and teachers would finish out the last two months as they have been, with remote learning, and get as much instructional time and learning with their students as possible. There's obviously no replacement for in-person instruction in classrooms...But obviously, doing what we can between now and the end of the school year, we want to get as much benefit for our students as possible."

The governor is encouraging superintendents to start planning for summer learning and instruction, summer food distribution, and preparation for the new school year as well.

Regarding concerns over students already in vulnerable learning circumstances falling even further behind in instructional education, Carney said the state continues to look at equipment and resource partnerships to allow them to keep up with their peers.

"That's a real concern and a real issue," he said. "I compliment the districts for doing creative things to connect their students. I compliment Comcast and other providers for making free access to the internet, but it doesn't mean it actually got connected in homes, and that's a challenge. I know Brandywine School District in particular, for example, distributed notebooks or laptops to help with that, but without connectivity... the other thing that I heard from teachers and students alike was just the engagement question, to get students to engage...when it's remote learning like that. We've talked a little bit about that before. It continues to be a challenge, [but] I think it will continue to get better. I know that districts are conscious of it and obviously they also have legal obligations there which motivates them as well, and us."

Carney added graduating seniors won't have ceremonies like we're used to holding.

"One of the things on [district leaders'] minds, is to celebrate seniors as they graduate, and obviously give them some recognition...but some way to recognize their achievement there," he said.

Joined by Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Kara Odom Walker and Delaware Emergency Management Agency Director A.J. Schall, Carney said, while rebooting the economy of the First State remains a priority.

"We're working kind of on two pathways right now. One is to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus as it spreads across our state...with respect to the situation in the lower part of our state," Carney said. "And at the same time, we're starting to think about and stand-up an operation that will, when the time is right, to reopen sectors of our economy and try to do that at the same time."

Sussex County continues to be a major area of concern; spread of COVID-19 there is at least twice what it is in Delaware's other counties.

"One of the things that we're going to see in the county breakdown is about the same number of cases in New Castle County as there are in Sussex County," he said. "These numbers don't reflect testing that's been done recently there, as we attempt to get our arms around the spread of the infection in the poultry worker community in Sussex County, so 1,486 positive cases in New Castle County, in Kent County, 558, and in Sussex County, 1394. When you convert the number of cases to a cases-per-thousand or [per-]10,000 measure, that infection rate in Sussex County is almost three times what it is in New Castle County."

Odom Walker said the efforts in the lower portion of Delaware need to be focused on acting as if "everyone has the virus" to ensure spread of COVID-19 is minimized.

"We are seeing...more than twice the rate of infections in New Castle County. That is based on the number of positive cases and the population of Sussex...We all certainly must behave as if we have the virus, but nowhere is this that true more than in Sussex County. We have a lot more work to do, but I want to make sure that everyone knows we want to help our neighbors across the state. Right now, our attention has to be to support those in Sussex County."

Residents in Sussex County will see a targeted distribution of supplies from DEMA, as well, to combat the inadvertent spread while families in tight living quarters try to avoid sources of COVID-19.

"We need to make sure to provide them supplies and what they need to help slow the spread, and that is everything from cloth, bandannas to make face coverings, to thermometers, to hand sanitizer, to just a simple bleach-water solution and paper towels to make sure they could sanitize the areas where they live. We know there are individuals that are living with multiple different people, and sometimes having that capacity in an apartment or a home is going to potentially increase the spread. We want to make sure they could slow [spread] down as much as possible through hygiene and cleaning," Schall said.

Sussex County faces a "serious situation," particularly among workers in chicken processing plants, where the state has teamed up with employers Perdue, Mountaire, and Allen Harim to test workers.

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The governor couldn't confirm how many workers at those plants tested positive.

"I don't have the exact number, but it's very high," he said.

Carney said at some point he hoped to make that data public, but noted only a small number of tests have been conducted so far.

"What we do know is there was a lot more testing that as done by ChristianaCare, again, with a very high percentage of positive cases," he said.

If there was an outbreak of coronavirus at a specific plant, it's unclear whether that would be public knowledge, despite the state confirming state-run and private nursing home facilities with multiple confirmed cases of the novel virus.

"I think we are going public about the problem, right now, talking about the issue we have in this community and our efforts to address it," he said. "I'm not aware of plants that governors have shut down, I know plants have shut themselves down for various reasons, and it's certainly one of the options that we have if we think its the best thing for the safety of the workers and the population around the plants."

Sussex County will not be ignored or forgotten, Carney said.

"There are certain guidelines that everybody needs to follow and they are things that we've been saying for the last six weeks," Carney said. "To stay at home, to practice basic hygiene to protect your neighbors and, in the process, save lives and to prevent the spread of the virus from from going further into our communities. We will, and are, leaning into this effort in Sussex County to treat those who are sick, to help them with the resources that they need to help protect those who are without the virus...We're all in this together and we're going to get through it together, as long as we can follow the instructions and follow the guidance that we've been talking about."

Guidance from the CDC and the White House Task Force looks for a consistent, downward trend of declining cases by day for 14 days in order to safely begin phase one of reopening. Carney acknowledged the challenge of getting there.

"It's kind of uneven, it's up and down, the number of new cases per day. It tends to rise on a pretty steady pattern up to where we are today, but on any given day it can be down a little bit or up a little bit. That in part is due to that we have irregular testing dates. Most of those tests are being done at hospital locations. We're starting to over-test in so-called 'hot spots' or areas of the state with a higher infection rate."

Carney said the state need to correct for that as it looks forward.

"One of the measures that we're looking at as a trigger is the percentage of total cases that are positive, and so, seeing a decline in that measure as a trigger," he said.

While data on available test kits can't be provided due to the fluidity of that process and requests by health care providers and hospitals, the state said 19,594 specimens tested (including Delawareans and non-Delaware residents) through the health care systems, and 2,783 specimens have been tested by the Delaware Public Health Laboratory as of April 22. Multiple negative tests per person are counted once, according to DPH.

Carney said additional testing will be happening in Georgetown and along the Route 9 corridor as well.

"ChristianaCare has moved their Middletown mobile unit up to PS duPont for a mobile site there, and are looking at other areas around New Castle County, particularly areas with under-represented populations there," he said.