After a steady decline over the past three months, the trend of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations is flattening out, or in some cases pointing slightly upward.

In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of COVID data, the 7-day average of new cases reported by the Alabama Department of Public Health is 311.14 per day, up from 294.86 a week beforehand. That average has been adjusted by BirminghamWatch to account for a backlog of 1,150 cases reported by health agencies, almost all of them residents of Mobile County. The backlogged cases date from Oct. 22 to last week.

The longer-term 14-day average, also adjusted because of the backlog, is now at 303.0 new cases per day, which is 35 cases lower than a week ago. It’s the lowest 14-day average since May 29 and down 92% since the record high logged in January.

The death toll averages are down in the past week, with the 7-day average falling to 10.86 per day, down from 14.0 a week ago. The 14-day average was nearly steady at 12.43 deaths per day. A total of 16 deaths were reported over the past four days.

Wednesday’s report from the ADPH showed 277 new cases and six deaths statewide. The number of hospitalized COVID patients stood at 336 as of Tuesday, the most recent date available. That figure is up slightly over the previous week; 314 inpatients were reported on April 6.

Jefferson County has had 236 new cases of the virus in the past seven days, a 7-day average of 33.71 per day. No cases were reported Tuesday or Wednesday; it’s unclear if that was due to a reporting anomaly. The weekly total is down from 293 for the week ending April 7. Thirteen deaths were reported in the county in the past seven days, up from seven the week before.

These figures come on the heels of two significant events in the effort to stop the COVID-19 virus in Alabama.

On Friday, the statewide mandate to wear face masks in most public places ended, though Gov. Kay Ivey and most top health officials continue to encourage masks and some cities — Birmingham and Montgomery among them — have instituted their own mask mandates.

On Tuesday, Alabama followed the lead of many other states in pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. The stoppage comes on the heels of reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that six women had developed unusual blood clots one to two weeks after receiving the J&J vaccine. Those six cases are out of more than 6.8 million doses administered so far. State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said that, while the clotting cases are extremely rare, Alabama would temporarily stop its use “out of an abundance of caution.” The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will continue to be used.

The ADPH reports than 818,600 people in Alabama have now received full treatments of vaccine, and 1,327,343 people have had at least one dose. In total, 2,075,276 doses have been administered out of 3,206,895 delivered to the state.

BirminghamWatch’s analysis is based on numbers updated each day by the ADPH on its website.