6,834 new cases and 35 more dead

Florida reported 6,834 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and another 35 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,168,901 cases since the pandemic began.

Worldwide, more than 140.8 million people have tested positive for COVID19 and more than 3 million people have died while battling the coronavirus.

The U.S. has more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country in the world. As of Sunday, more than 31.6 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 567,000 people have died across the U.S., as reported by Johns Hopkins University.

India has reported the second most cases, with more than 14.7 million, followed by Brazil with 13.9 million. Brazil has reported more deaths, with a tally of 371,678 compared to 212,228 in Mexico and 177,150 in India.

In other news, Dr. Anthony Fauci says he doubts the U.S. will place a permanent halt on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s singledose COVID-19 vaccine.

He expects a decision this coming week, with possible restrictions based on age or gender after reports of rare blood clot cases.

“I would be very surprised if we don’t have a resumption in some form by Friday,” he said. “I don’t really anticipate that they’re going to want it stretch it out a bit longer.”

The vaccine has been in limbo since last week after clots were found in six women between the ages of 18 and 48. One person died.

South Florida

Palm Beach County: 491 additional cases and no more deaths. The county now has 138,967 confirmed cases and 2,769 deaths, including 52 non-residents.

Broward County: 764 additional cases and 14 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 228,502 cases and 2,830 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 47 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 1,760 additional cases and 1 new death. The county now has 470,668 confirmed cases and 6,088 deaths, including 44 non-residents.

Testing and positivity

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. But since Oct. 29, Florida has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents.

The state reported a daily positivity rate of 8.68% on Sunday, up from 6.88% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.

According to the state, the new reported case numbers reflect the results of 74,581 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 92,206 results reported the day before.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 5,511 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 8.24%. That’s up from 5.98% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 9,839 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.38%. That’s up from 6.97% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 15,863 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 10.36%. That’s up from 7% the previous day.

Deaths

The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in South Florida have declined.

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 34,439 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 670 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Sunday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.

Out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks No. 23 for deaths per 100,000 residents and No. 16 for cases per 100,000 residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations

As of Sunday, there were 3,249 people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

In South Florida, Broward County reported 487, Palm Beach County had 208 and Miami-Dade had 587.

Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.

Vaccines

More than 5.67 million people in Florida have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

In Florida, 2,921,684 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 13.60% of the population.

So far, 5,012,332 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 23.34% of the population.