Coronavirus updates: State tops 14,000 deaths as restaurants reopen

A total of 530 people remained hospitalized for COVID-19 in Wisconsin as of Thursday afternoon -- the highest yet since the pandemic began.

Among those patients, 371 were receiving mechanical ventilation and 141 were in intensive care units. Currently, 80% of all hospital beds statewide are full, according to the latest data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Wisconsin topped 500 for the first time Wednesday, according to a report by Madison ABC affiliate WKOW.

"There is no doubt that we are in a significant near-crunch time in a number of regions in the state," Dr. Mark Kaufman, chief medical officer of the Wisconsin Hospital Association, told WKOW.

The rising number of COVID-19 hospitalizations comes as hospitals are also gearing up for flu season.

"We really don't know how people will react if they are co-infected with both COVID and influenza," Kaufman said. "But it is not likely to be good."

India confirmed another 86,052 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

An additional 1,141 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded. The country's cumulative total now stands at 5,818,570 confirmed cases and 92,290 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The daily caseload in the vast county of 1.3 billion people has remained below the 90,000 mark for five consecutive days after hitting a peak of 97,894 on Sept. 16, the highest single-day rise in infections worldwide since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Based on the current rate of infection, India is expected within weeks to become the pandemic's worst-hit nation, surpassing the United States, where more than 6.9 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The United Kingdom reported 6,634 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, its highest daily caseload since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Another 40 coronavirus related-fatalities within 28 days of a positive test result were also registered Thursday, according to data published on the U.K. government's website. The latest daily death toll for COVID-19 is far below the country's record set on April 8 when there were 1,073 new fatalities reported U.K.-wide.

The United Kingdom's cumulative total now stands at 416,363 confirmed cases and 41,902 deaths. The number of new infections started to come down in mid-April after hitting a peak but has been on the rise again since July.

The surge has prompted the British government to tighten restrictions on daily life in an effort to curb the current rate of infection.

The United Kingdom is not the only country seeing a second wave of COVID-19. Other European nations including France and Spain are also grappling with growing outbreaks.

There were 44,110 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Thursday, as the nation's cumulative total edges closer to 7 million, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Thursday's tally is well below the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.

An additional 914 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Thursday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.

A total of 6,978,874 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 202,818 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July. The daily tally of new cases has gradually come down since then but has hovered around 40,000 in recent weeks.

An internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News on Wednesday night shows that the number of new cases recorded in the United States is increasing by double digits in week-over-week comparisons, while the number of new deaths is down.