Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee

There were 188,952 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Thursday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Thursday's case count is lower than the country's all-time high of 298,031 new cases, which were confirmed on Jan. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.

An additional 3,955 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide on Thursday, down from a peak of 4,462 new deaths on Jan. 12, according to Johns Hopkins data.

COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the holiday weekend and earlier holidays.

A total of 24,631,890 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 410,349 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.

The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4, then reaching 200,000 on Nov. 27 before nearing 300,000 on Jan. 2.

Despite rising COVID-19 infections in Japan, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Thursday that there is "no reason whatsoever" to believe the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on July 23 as planned.

"This is why there is no plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these games safe and successful," Back told Japanese news agency Kyodo in an interview Thursday.

However, Bach admitted he could not guarantee that the stands would be full or rule out the possibility that the Games would be held without spectators, according to Kyodo.

The 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Tokyo last year on July 24. But in late March, amid mounting calls to delay or cancel the upcoming Games, the International Olympic Committee and Japan's prime minister announced that the event would be held a year later due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, Japan is facing a resurgence of COVID-19. The country of 126 million people reported the highest number of new cases in the Western Pacific region last week. The infection rate -- currently at 32.8 cases per 100,000 people -- increased by 4% over the previous week, according to the World Health Organization's latest COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confirmed 5,662 new cases of COVID-19 as well as an additional 87 fatalities from the disease on Thursday, bringing the cumulative totals to 348,646 cases and 4,829 deaths.

Japanase Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and 10 other prefectures due to climbing case counts and growing death tolls.

As the United States reported one of its highest weekly death tolls during the pandemic, there are some indications that the country is moving in the right direction, according to an analysis by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.

"Even for the states experiencing the worst outbreaks, we are seeing early indications that the rates of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are easing, though some areas are still reporting dangerously high case and hospitalization levels and wrenching death rates," the group said in its latest weekly analysis, published Thursday.

There were 21,301 deaths reported this week, the second-highest number during the pandemic, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

At the same time, the number of weekly new cases for the seven-day period beginning Jan. 14 were down 20% -- at the lowest levels for a non-holiday week since mid-November. 

Additionally, average weekly hospitalizations decreased for the first time in 16 weeks -- "a modest improvement, but a good sign," the group said. 

Hospitalizations are declining across the South, West and Midwest and have plateaued in the Northeast. State-level data "remains encouraging" as well, with hospitalizations declining or flat in every state but New York, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the state has a "long ways to go" as it marks the one-year anniversary of the first U.S. case of COVID-19 being discovered in the state of Washington.

"We were hit the first and hardest," Inslee said during a press briefing Thursday. "Our recovery for the pandemic is progressing, and we have a long ways to go and we need to continue to learn from what we have experienced."

Since that first diagnosis, Washington state has reported 296,087 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases as well as at least 4,065 deaths from the disease.

If the state "made different decisions," there could have been as many as 8,000 more people who died, Inslee said.

On the vaccination front, Washington state is administering on average more than 16,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines per day, with plans to open four mass-vaccination sites next week, according to the governor. 

Amazon will also open a one-day pop-up clinic in Seattle on Sunday, with the aim of administering 2,000 vaccines, Inslee said.

The governor urged residents to "remain diligent" amid the vaccine rollout. 

"If we deviate from that course, we will have thousands more deceased Washingtonians in the months to come and that's just a hard fact," he said. 

-ABC News' Michelle Mendez contributed to this report