Coronavirus updates: 84% of California population to go on lockdown Sunday night

The daily COVID-19 test positivity rate in Los Angeles County is almost 12% -- up from 7% one week ago, health officials said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 7,593 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, which breaks a previous record set last week.

The numbers signal that "the virus is infecting more people at a faster rate than ever seen in L.A. County before," officials said.

There are 2,316 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized. That number has gone up nearly every day since Nov. 1, when it was 799, officials said.

"We are in the middle of an accelerating surge in a pandemic of huge magnitude," Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. "This is not the time to skirt or debate the safety measures that protect us because we need every single person to use every tool available to stop the surge and save lives.”

The county began a modified stay-at-home order on Monday, putting new limits on gatherings, activities and business occupancy. The order lasts until at least Dec. 20.

-ABC News' Jen Watts contributed to this report

Ventilator use and the number of COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit are on the rise in the U.S., according to an internal Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Tuesday evening.

Thirty percent of ventilators in use are occupied by COVID-19 patients. That number is slightly up from the previous HHS memo. The peak was 45% in April.

About 28% of hospitals have more than 80% of their ICU beds filled. That number, which was 17%-18% during the summertime peak, is also up slightly.

The number of inpatients with COVID-19 is 21% -- which is quickly approaching the all-time peak of 24%.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin

Health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities should be the first people in line to receive a potential COVID-19 vaccine, an independent group of medical experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 on the recommendation in an emergency virtual meeting on Tuesday.

The panel's recommendations will be sent to the CDC, but ultimately it will be up to each state to determine whether to follow the guidelines on vaccine distribution.
    
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Vice President Mike Pence and other attendees at Tuesday's White House coronavirus task force meeting that it planned to release guidance that would shorten the length of time it recommended people quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19, according to a senior Trump administration official who was at the meeting.

It will recommend COVID-exposed people with a negative test quarantine for seven days, which is down from 14 days, and that COVID-exposed people with no test quarantine for 10 days (also down from 14 days), according to the official.

The New York Times first reported on this news from Tuesday's meeting.

Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Adm. Brett Giroir said last week the administration had been “actively working on that type of guidance” and was “reviewing the evidence.”

The official said the move was “100% data-driven.”
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson