Gaston County's COVID-19 death rate plunged at the end of last week, with just three people succumbing to the virus between Tuesday and Friday.
The total death toll over the past 11 months rose to 371 Friday from 368 on Tuesday. That's an average of just one death per day, after averaging more than two deaths per day in the nearly four months since Oct. 15.
The number of positive cases rose to just less than 22,600 positive cases up from 22,300 positive tests on Tuesday.
After reaching all time highs on Jan. 4 of 378 daily COVID-19 cases, that metric was more than halved on Feb. 1 to 176 daily cases, before falling to 115 cases on Feb. 8 and just 49 cases on Feb. 10.