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

There were 217,664 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,879 additional deaths from the disease registered in the United States on Thursday, both numbers which shattered the country's previous daily records, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the most new cases and deaths the U.S. has recorded in a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It's also the 31st straight day that the country has reported over 100,000 newly diagnosed infections, and the third time since the pandemic began that the daily figure has topped 200,000, according to Johns Hopkins data.

COVID-19 data may be skewed in the coming days and weeks due to possible lags in reporting over Thanksgiving followed by a potentially very large backlog from the holiday.

A total of 14,143,801 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 276,366 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. 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 over the summer.

The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4 and reaching 200,000 for the first time on Nov. 27.

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