The downward trend in numbers of new cases and people hospitalized from COVID-19 continued Wednesday, but the death rate rose again in Alabama.

The state Department of Public Health added 205 deaths from the coronavirus, raising the daily average to 126 over the past week. There have been 13,665 COVID deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020. The 7-day average has grown by six-fold since starting at 20 at the beginning of September. The agency says it takes about two weeks for COVID deaths to be reported, confirmed and added to the count.

The Alabama Hospital Association reported 1,857 COVID patients on Tuesday and said 83% of them were unvaccinated. It said1,545 of the state’s 1,555 intensive care unit beds were occupied, including 649 patients with the coronavirus. The number of COVID inpatients in hospitals across the state has steadily dropped this month, from 2,890 on Sept. 1.

There were 3,018 new cases of the disease in Wednesday’s ADPH update, raising the overall total for the pandemic to 778,549. The 7-day average number of new cases has fallen from 5,538 on Sept. 1 to 2,951 in the new report.