The Johns Hopkins COVID Dashboard  for Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, at 5:23 a.m.:

Worldwide cases:  81,462,618     Worldwide number of people dead from COVID-19:   1,778,266

U.S. cases: 19,321,774     U.S. number of people dead from COVID-19: 335,208

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide case report increased by 554,456 in the last 24 hours.  Deaths worldwide increased by 11,079.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard,  175,792 more  people have been confirmed to have COVID-19 in the U.S. in the past 24 hours.

In the last day, the number of people who have died in the U.S. from  COVID-19 increased by 1,969.

The U.S. continues to far exceed cases and deaths of any country, having nearly twice as many cases and 11 times the deaths of India, which the Johns Hopkins Dashboard says has just over 10.2 million cases and just over 148,000 deaths.   Brazil, listed third, has just over 7.5 million cases and has lost 191,570 people to COVID-19.  Click on the attached map to see the detail of the top 5 countries.  Or click here for the source map.

In Hawaii, the total number of people in the state who had contracted COVID-19 as of Friday’s numbers, reported by the State Department of Health yesterday, was 21,028,.  The Big Island has had 1,864 cases in total.

The COVID Tracking Project reports that 121,235 people were hospitalized as of Monday.  On the Big Island in Hawaii, as of Monday, 5 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense.

In good news, late Sunday, President Donald Trump signed the bill that will provide government funding, which avoided a government shutdown, and will provide at least $1.7 billion in COVID-19 relief to Hawaii.  He has asked Congress to increase the payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000.  On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the increase.  The U.S. Senate would also have to approve increasing the amount, and political analysts say it’s not clear how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will address the issue, as Republicans during the negotiations over the COVID-19 relief bill were not in favor of increasing the amount.  The Senate is scheduled to meet starting at noon today, EST, which is 7 a.m. Hawaii time, according to the Senate calendar.