Coronavirus updates: US reports nearly 300,000 new cases in all-time high

The new COVID-19 variant, which was confirmed in one person in Colorado on Tuesday, has now been detected in Southern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.

Health officials in San Diego later said at a press conference the variant was found in their city, and the 30-year-old man had no history of travel, just like the person in Colorado. He has not been hospitalized, but contact tracing is underway and more cases are expected, officials said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said to Newsom, "I am not surprised that you have a case and likely more cases in California and we will likely be seeing reports from other states."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it expects "there will be additional cases that are likely to be detected."

"Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time," the CDC said.

The variant doesn't appear to cause more severe disease or mortality, but does appear to have a higher transmission rate, the CDC said.

This comes as hard-hit California has reached a new record daily death toll with 432 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, officials said Wednesday. This equals approximately one person dying every three minutes.

The Golden State has 20,612 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, including 4,389 people in intensive care units.

ICU capacity remains at 0% in the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions.

ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its forecast for coronavirus-related deaths over the next four weeks.

The agency, which used 33 models, predicted 12,400 to 24,300 new deaths will likely be reported between now and the week ending Jan. 23.

"The national ensemble predicts that a total of 383,000 to 424,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date," the CDC said.

By comparison, the population of New Orleans is 391,000, according to U.S. Census data.

ABC News' Brian Reiferson contributed to this report.

A limited number of Buffalo Bills fans -- 6,700 people -- will be permitted to attend the team’s home playoff game in January as part of a larger experiment to see if businesses can safely reopen, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.

Each fan would have to test negative before attending and follow strict policies on distancing and face coverings. "No tailgating, no mass gatherings," Cuomo said.

Postgame, there will be contact tracing, Cuomo said.

The state health department will closely monitor if positive cases emerge among fans who attended the game.

This game will serve as a pilot to try to see how businesses can “smartly and safely reopen,” Cuomo said.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui and Gen. Gus Perna acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that vaccination numbers aren’t high as they hoped, but they anticipate an escalation in the coming weeks.

Officials said 14 million doses have been shipped to states and another six million would arrive next week. 

So far, only 2 million shots have been logged in a federal system.

“We agree that the number is lower than what we hoped for,” Slaoui told reporters. 

“We would like to invite anybody who has energy to participate and help us further improve administration of the vaccine to come to the table, with your sleeves up and come up and help us with specific ideas,” Slaoui said. 

Perna said the administration was working through the details but that he wasn’t concerned. He said he expects that between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15, the number of shots given will ramp up dramatically as more pharmacies come on board.

"Essentially it’s been just 12 days. There’s two holidays. There’s been three major snow storms,” Perna said. “There is everybody working through, you know, how to do the notification, how to make sure we’re administering it the right way, how to ensure that it stays in accordance with the cold chain… And here’s what I have confidence in: Every day everybody gets better. And I believe that uptake will increase.” 

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.