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

The U.S. saw record numbers of new COVID-19 cases and current hospitalizations on Thursday, according to The COVID-19 Tracking Project. 

There were 210,161 new cases, and 100,667 people are currently hospitalized, it said.

The number of hospitalizations "makes clear exactly how severe the pandemic is," the project said in its weekly analysis.

That number has more than doubled in the past month as the West and Midwest recently set new records and the South approaches its mid-July peak.

Los Angeles County reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases yet on Thursday, as the virus continues to surge in the region.

There were 7,854 new daily cases, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said, breaking a record set on Tuesday.

There were 44 new deaths and 2,572 current hospitalizations, officials said. The county is at 76% occupancy of overall intensive care unit capacity.

Under new restrictions in response to the surge, residents are urged to stay home as much as possible and not gather with people outside their household until Dec. 20.

-ABC News' Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report

Nearly 329,000 people could die from COVID-19 by Dec. 26, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. 

The agency's latest national ensemble forecast predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next four weeks, with 9,500 to 19,500 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending Dec. 26. 

The national ensemble predicts that 303,000 to 329,000 total COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date. The U.S. death toll currently stands at 275,550, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield warned that as many as 472,000 people might die from the virus by February.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty

A new stay-at-home advisory in Delaware will ban residents from gathering indoors with anyone not in their household, reported ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.

The order will last from Dec. 14 to Jan. 11.

Gov. John Carney also announced a new mask mandate requiring masks whenever indoors with someone from outside the household.