A staggering 299,087 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 84.6 million people worldwide and killed over 1.8 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
New York state saw 166 deaths Thursday -- the highest number of deaths in a single day since May 12.
On Thursday, 219,523 test results were reported to New York state, and 7.52% were positive, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office reported.
There were 7,886 patient hospitalizations statewide, 1,292 patients in intensive care units and 776 intubated.
-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos
340,000 people have been vaccinated to date in Texas, out of the state's received allotment of 786,000 vaccination doses, according to data from Texas Health and Human Services.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner also authorized the Houston Health Department to open the city's first free COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Jan. 2. The clinic will expand vaccine access to the general public at high risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus disease, according to a statement from Texas health officials.
Texas' health department received its first allotment of 3,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and started administering it on December 28.
The Houston Health Department will announce additional free vaccination opportunities as supply increases.
-ABC News' Gina Sunseri
Two New Year's Eve parties in New York City, one in Manhattan with more than 145 people and another in Queens with more than 300 people, were shut down by city sheriff deputies, according to a Tweet posted by the NYC Sheriff's Twitter account on Friday.
The charges in connection with the shutdowns included violating emergency orders, lacking a liquor license and health code violations.
-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.
Despite repeated warnings not to travel for the holidays from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14,388,562 people passed through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints between Dec. 18 and Dec. 31.
Still, that number pales in comparison to previous years. In 2019, 33,242,050 people were screened by the TSA at U.S. checkpoints during the same period.
-ABC News' Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
