Coronavirus updates: State reports over 49,000 new cases, 468 new deaths

The COVID-19 variant first found in the United Kingdom has now been detected in eight states, with officials announcing cases Thursday in Pennsylvania, Texas and Connecticut.

In Pennsylvania, the case was confirmed in Dauphin County, which encompasses Harrisburg.

“This individual tested positive after known international exposure. A case investigation and contact tracing were performed to identify, inform and monitor anyone who was in close contact with this individual,” state officials said. “The individual had mild symptoms, which have since been resolved while they completed their isolation at home.”

“Pennsylvania has been preparing for this variant by working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has been sending 10-35 random samples biweekly to the CDC since November to study sequencing and detect any potential cases for this new COVID-19 variant,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement. “Public health experts are in the early stages of working to better understand this new variant, how it spreads and how it affects people who are infected with it.”

The variant was also confirmed for the first time in Texas on Thursday, officials said. The case was in Harris County, which encompasses Houston.

The man has had no history of travel and is stable in isolation, Harris County officials said.

Epidemiologists are working to identify and quarantine his close contacts.

In Connecticut, two unrelated cases were confirmed in New Haven County, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday.

The two people are between the ages of 15 and 25 and both "recently traveled outside Connecticut -- one to Ireland and the other to New York State -- and both developed symptoms within 3 to 4 days of their return," Lamont's office said.

"They are in the process of being re-interviewed by public health officials in light of the identification of the UK variant as the cause of their illnesses," his office said. "One individual has completed their self-isolation period, and the other is self-isolating at their home and will remain there until they are 10 days past the onset of symptoms and they are symptom free."

COVID-19 mutates regularly and the variant first detected in the U.K. has now been confirmed in at least eight states: Georgia, New York, Colorado, California, Florida and now Pennsylvania and Texas. While it appears to spread more easily, there's no evidence that it's more deadly.

California reported another 36,385 cases and 583 more deaths on Wednesday.

Hospitalizations are continuing to rise in the hard-hit state.

ABC News' Matt Fuhrman contributed to this report.

The number of patients currently hospitalized nationwide is at a record high, according to ABC News’ analysis of COVID Tracking Project data.

In the last three months, the national number of patients currently hospitalized has quadrupled, surging by 322% since early October.

On Wednesday, 12 states hit a record number of current hospitalizations: Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Wednesday marked the deadliest day on record for the U.S., with 3,865 COVID-19 deaths reported -- a record death toll for the second consecutive day, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. has now surpassed 361,000 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths, which signifies that at least 1 in every 915 Americans has now died from COVID-19.

The average number of daily cases in the U.S. is now the highest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic, up by 21% in the last week, after it surpassed 216,000 for the first time on Wednesday.

ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

South Africa announced Thursday that it will import 1.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by England's University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

South African Health Minister Dr. Zwelini Mkhize said the country will be receiving 1 million doses later this month, followed by 500,000 doses in February. Mkhize said the healthy ministry has purchased the doses directly from the Serum Institute of India, which has a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

Meanwhile, South Africa's drug regulatory body is "fine-tuning and aligning all the regulations processes to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays or regulatory impediments to activate this rollout," Mkhize said.

The country's health care workers in both public and private hospitals -- an estimated 1.25 million people -- will have first priority in getting the vaccine, according to Mkhize.

The announcement comes as South Africa grapples with a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus. Some hospitals are reportedly already at capacity amid the recent surge in infections.

South Africa has reported more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 30,524 deaths, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The country of 60 million people has by far the highest number of diagnosed infections in Africa.