The Allegan County Health Department has reported the first local death in more than two months as a result of the Cornavirus.

The death toll in the county was locked in at 158 in late June. The updated number now is 159.

The Health Department also reported that the number of hospitalizations has increased by six over the past two weeks and the virus positivity rate in testing has jumped to 9.4 percent, up from just over 2% a couple of months ago.

The number of average daily cases over the last seven days has increased to 19.7, a leap from 2.6 in late June, another significant worrisome statistic, coming on the heels of the highly contagious Delta strain. A total of 274 cases has been reported in the county over the past two weeks

There have been 267 hospitalizations from Covid since the pandemic began. The number of tests is one shy of 11,200 and 11,136 people have been characterized as recovered.

The Health Department last week issued a directive for all public schools in the county to mandate children in grades K-6 to wear masks in the classrooms.

Wayland schools will start the academic year with a half day Monday, Aug. 23. Martin will begin Tuesday and Hopkins Thursday.