Alabama’s COVID-19 count crept toward the half-million mark Saturday as the state Department of Public Health reported 524 new cases of the disease.

That brought the number of cases of the coronavirus in the state to 499,411 over the course of the year-long pandemic.

The agency added 65 deaths in its daily update, raising the overall number to 10,149.

A total of 45,976 people have been hospitalized with the disease, and the number of inpatients per day has dropped dramatically since reaching a high of 3,084 on Jan. 11. ADPH said there were 526 COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Friday, down from 1,664 a month earlier and 678 a week ago.

ADPH said an average of 17% of those tested for the coronavirus have shown positive over the past week. The weekly percentage peaked at 38% on Jan. 5 and dipped to as low as 11% on Feb. 11. Health officials regard the ideal range to be 5% or lower.