The seven-day average for new COVID cases has continued to fall, and stood at 58,928 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker. That’s down 11% from two weeks ago and below the recent peak of 70,508 on Christmas Eve. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 8% at 44,841. The average for deaths was 317, down 23% from two weeks ago. The NYT trackers said there is reason to believe case and death counts could artificially low, as those who track those numbers take vacation for the Christmas and New Year holidays, but hospitalization data isn’t typically affected by holiday reporting breaks. COVID-related patients in intensive care units (ICUs) rose 11% in two weeks to 5,350. Meanwhile, the test positivity rate climbed to 15%, and has increased by 23% over the past two weeks. Higher test positivity rates suggest many new COVID cases are not being reported, as many found through at-home tests may not be reported to case trackers. The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 661 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.69 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with 100.8 million cases and 1,092,679 fatalities.
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