Florida cases appear to be leveling off after summer surge

The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in Florida is holding steady since peaking in July — when more than 15,000 new cases were reported in a single day. The state on Sunday added 2,521 new cases and the number of new reported deaths was in the single digits at nine.

The state’s positivity rate stands at 4.64% for new tests reported in the previous 24-hour period. This is the ninth straight day that the rate has been below 5%, generally considered a key target figure when making decisions about resuming daily activities.

Just last week, MiamiDade and Broward counties joined Palm Beach County in Phase 2 of reopening.

Miami-Dade added 365 new cases for a total of 166,881. Broward County added another 183 cases for a total of 75,682 and Palm Beach County added another 173 cases for a total of 45,329.

In Florida, a total of 683,754 cases have been reported since the pandemic began, according to the state Department of Health. The number of deaths among residents and nonresidents in the state now stands at 13,459.

Some 5.1 million people have been tested in Florida and 42,939 people have been hospitalized in the state.

In Broward, 550,271 people have been tested for COVID-19 and 5,776 people have been hospitalized. In Miami-Dade, 887,458 people have been tested and 7,709 have been hospitalized. In Palm Beach County, 355,535 people have been tested and there have been 3,552 hospitalizations.

More than 6.7 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19. The U.S. is inching close to 200,000 deaths. The U.S. has the highest number of cases in the world. Worldwide, there are 30.8 million cases and 957,959 known deaths.