The U.S. is forecast to have almost 500,000 COVID-19 deaths by mid-February.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 94.2 million people worldwide and killed over 2 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Texas reported a record number of daily COVID-19 fatalities on Wednesday.
There were 405 new deaths, based on state health department data.
The state also reported 26,808 new and probable cases and 14,106 current hospitalizations.
Late Tuesday, Texas became the second state to cross 2 million diagnosed cases of COVID-19, following California.
California and New Jersey officials on Wednesday announced new groups eligible for the vaccine.
In New Jersey, beginning Thursday, all residents ages 65 and above will be eligible, as well as people between the ages of 16 and 64 with medical conditions defined by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that increase risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
“This is folks with chronic, real-time health challenges,” Gov. Phil Murphy said.
The CDC defines those as: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, obesity and severe obesity, sickle cell disease, smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, pregnancy and heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies.
"Smoking puts you at significant risk for an adverse result from COVID-19 and there are 2 million smokers in New Jersey that fit into this category," said Commissioner of the Department of Health, Judy Persichilli.
In California, people ages 65 and older are the next group eligible to get vaccinated.
“With our hospitals crowded and ICUs full, we need to focus on vaccinating Californians who are at highest risk of becoming hospitalized to alleviate stress on our health care facilities,” Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and State Public Health Officer, said in a statement.
ABC News' Eric Strauss contributed to this report.
Researchers at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center said Wednesday that they've have identified two new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The first variant, which was found in just one person, contains a mutation that's similar to a mutation seen in the variants from the U.K. and South Africa, but it arose independently in the U.S., the researchers said. It is not known if it is more easily transmissible.
The second newly identified variant was found in about 20 patients in Columbus and also arose independently in the U.S., the researchers said. It does not contain any mutations in common with variants identified in the U.K. or South Africa, they said. Scientists said they found cases of this variant with increased frequency during late December, which could imply that it's more easily transmissible, but they emphasized that more studies are needed.
Peter Mohler, a co-author of the study and chief scientific officer at the Wexner Medical Center, said Wednesday, "we’re not ready to overreact," stressing, "this is very normal for a virus to mutate."
ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
With 4,327 confirmed deaths on Tuesday -- the deadliest day of the pandemic so far -- Tuesday’s death toll equaled about one American dying every 20 seconds.
The national average of daily cases is also at a record high, with 246,000 new cases every day.
In the last week, 22 states and Washington, D.C., have reported a record seven-day average of daily cases.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 22.8 million Americans have contracted COVID-19 -- meaning about one in every 14 Americans has tested positive.
California has the most hospitalizations of any state with more than 22,000 patients, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Georgia.
Arizona, Alabama and Nevada currently hold the highest hospitalizations rates per million people in the country.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
