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.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Gaston County reached 342 on Friday but there s signs of positive trends in the data.
An additional 17 virus related deaths were reported between Jan. 22-29, an average of more than 2.4 deaths per day over that period.
A total of 241 people have died due to the virus over the past 15 weeks, or an average of nearly 2.3 deaths per day since Oct. 15.
Approximately 900 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Gaston County over the past week, growing to more than 21,100 since March 2020.
There have been signs of improvement in January, however. After weeks with the number of hospitalizations remaining above 100, that number fell to just 57 hospitalizations by Friday, with just three people on a ventilator.
Gaston County s COVID-19 death toll more than doubled in just the last two-and-a-half months of 2020.
Data released last week by county health leaders indicates a total of 244 Gaston County residents died due to the virus through Dec. 28.
It took more than six months for the death toll to top 101 deaths, the tally recorded on Oct. 15.
Since then, an additional 143 local people have died, an average of just less than two deaths per day.
The number of positive tests have more than doubled over the same span, growing from more than 6,300 positive tests to more than 14,900.
The most recently available data shows the percentage of positive tests, 14.55%, from Dec. 5 to Dec. 12 is a slight improvement from the week prior at 15.8%.