As more and more Alabamians get their vaccinations for COVID-19, the rate of deaths attributed to the virus keeps falling.

In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of COVID data, the 7-day average of deaths reported to the Alabama Department of Public Health has fallen to 20.14 per day. That’s less than half of where the average stood at the beginning of March and a whopping 87% below the peak average of 154.29 per day set Jan. 29.

The longer-term 14-day average also is trending downward, with 23.86 deaths per day. That number has fallen from near 50 per day on March 1. The total deaths reported since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 10,363.

The death toll trends are similar to the numbers for most other categories in the state. The number of new cases of the virus have leveled off from their downward trend just a bit, even when accounting for 4,208 backlogged cases added this week that date back as far as October. The adjusted 7-day moving average now stands at 552.85 new cases per day, down from 606.29 a week prior. The 14-day adjusted average is close to the shorter-term mark, with 598.86 deaths per day over the past two weeks.

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to levels not seen in almost a year. The count Tuesday was 420, and it had been as low as 403 in the previous week. Those totals are the lowest since April 26, when 386 beds were occupied by COVID patients.

Vaccinations continue to increase rapidly in the state, with 816,936 people having received one or both doses. So far, 1,912,215 doses of the three vaccines have been delivered to Alabama, with 1,294,963 doses administered.

Gov. Kay Ivey recently ordered Alabama National Guard units to set up mobile vaccination sites in rural areas, mainly in the southern part of the state.

Jefferson County had 659 new cases in the past seven days, a 7-day average of 94.14 cases per day. Twenty-seven deaths were reported over the period, with 15 of those coming Wednesday. There have been 73,722 cases and 1,433 deaths in the county since the pandemic began. The county’s 14-day average positivity rate — the percentage of COVID tests that are returned with positive results — is down to 7.43%, well below the more than 20% positivity rates seen just after the holidays.

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

This story has been updated to correct the 7-day moving average number of cases.