The latest COVID-19 report issued by county officials last Friday included 12 new deaths, including two from the Gerald area. 

The report attributes the deaths of a 60-year-old Gerald woman and an 94-year-old man to the coronavirus. 

The newly reported deaths were said to have occurred in August and September. They bring the total COVID-19 death toll for the county to 202 confirmed deaths and  33 probable deaths. 

“Probable Cases and Deaths are added when antigen testing detects proteins specific to the virus and are tracked and investigated by the Franklin County Health Department,” according to the report.

There were 242 confirmed cases and 65 probable cases reported last week. Those numbers are down from the prior week which showed 269 and 75 respectively. 

There were seven new cases reported in the Gerald area, one in Beaufort and six in Leslie.

The virus has once again crept into long-term facilities in the county with five new cases reported. There were no cases in such facilities the week prior. 

Hospitalizations are down from nine the week before, to six in the latest report. 

The weekly reports make it difficult to determine monthly statistics, but some rough calculations can be made. For the month of September there were 1,359 confirmed cases reported, 399 probable cases, 19 confirmed deaths and one probable death reported.