The Allegan County Health Department Friday reported the second death in the last week as a result of the Coronavirus.

The county’s death toll remained at 158 since March 2020 for about two months, but now stands at 160. Eight new hospitalizations have been reported over the past two weeks, going hand in hand with the growing threat of the Delta variant of Covid-19.

The virus positivity rate in testing has jumped to 12.4 percent, up from 3% a couple of months ago. And though the daily average of new cases over seven days was pegged at just 2.3 in late June, it has increased to 21.3.

A total of 305 cases has been reported in the county over the past two weeks

There now have been 271 hospitalizations from Covid since the pandemic began. The number of tests is just shy of 12,000 and 11,213 people have been characterized as recovered.

The Health Department earlier this issued a directive for all public schools in the county to mandate children in grades K-6 to wear masks in the classrooms because they are not eligible for vaccinations. Parents from every school district in the county have been lodging protests.