Coronavirus updates: 1st vaccines now on the way to all 50 US states

After a slowdown in reporting and testing over the Thanksgiving holiday, week-over-week COVID-19 numbers continue to show dramatic increases in new cases and deaths, according to an internal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Friday night.

From Dec. 5 to 11, there was an 18.1% increase in new cases and a 26.9% increase in new deaths compared with the previous week, the memo said.

Across the country, 31% of hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, and 31% of ventilators in use are occupied by COVID-19 patients, HHS said. Additionally, 21% of inpatients have COVID-19, nearing the all-time peak of 24%.

Cases are sharply rising in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Utah, the memo noted. Maryland, South Dakota and Wyoming have also seen a surge in COVID-19 fatality rates.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin

Los Angeles County reported a new high for COVID-19 cases on Friday, topping the record set the day before. 

There were 13,815 new cases reported on Friday, surpassing Thursday's record by nearly 1,000.  

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer attributed the surge to Thanksgiving gatherings.

"The impact of these Thanksgiving surges of cases, on top of already rising cases, is creating extraordinary stress," she said at a briefing. "Should this be followed by another surge related to the winter holiday, the numbers of hospitalizations and patients in the ICU could become catastrophic."

There are 3,624 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. In two weeks, that could be over 7,300 people, Ferrer warned, if the average number of cases and hospitalizations continue to climb.

-ABC News' Bonnie Mclean and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report

The Department of Health and Human Services said it’s buying another 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine candidate, which is scheduled for review by the FDA advisory committee next Thursday. 

The federal government will now own a total 200 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.

In a Friday phone call, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn that his job could be on the line if his agency doesn't authorize emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of the day, sources familiar with the matter said. 

"We don’t comment on private conversations, but the chief regularly requests updates on progress toward a vaccine," a White House official told ABC News.

Vaccine authorization by the FDA is expected imminently, as early as today.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and John Santucci contributed to this report.