Fayette County added 18 new Covid-19 cases to bring its tally to 5,612 pandemic infections. It also added 2 more fatalities to record a total of 114 deaths since March 2020, according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The most recent fatalities are 2 African-Americans: a man, 90 and a woman, 79. Neither had any other underlying medical conditions, DPH said. Fayette’s death rate is slightly above 2%, meaning that of every 100 persons who tested positive for Covid, 2 have had a fatal outcome. For a DPH list of all Fayette Covid fatalities to date, click here.

Fayette’s current 2-week rate of new positive Covid tests is back up to 10.2%, higher even tham neighboring Coweta COunty (9.6%) and close to the overall state rate of 10.7%, DPH figures showed.

Across the state, hosptalizations for treatment of serious Covid cases has continued a decline, as shown in the main chart above. From a high Jan. 13 of 5,717 Covid patients occupying hospital beds on a single day, the daily report from Feb. 12 shows 3,129 Covid hospitalizations, or 19.2% of all hospitalized patients. That’s 2,588 fewer seriously ill Covid patients than a month ago, a 45% decrease.

State numbers:

• 2,456 new cases to bring total to 786,277

• 184 fatalities reported Feb. 12, with a pandemic total of 13,856, and a death rate of 1.76%

• 258 new Covid hospital patients, for a pandemic total of 53,111

The 2 charts immediately below depict the 7-day rolling average of new Fayette cases and new state cases. The third graph shows the Friday report of ICU beds and their usage over time.