Twenty-six U.S. states are currently considered in the "red zone" for COVID-19 cases, according to the latest White House coronavirus task force weekly briefing for governors.

Last week's briefing showed 24 states in the red zone for cases, up from 22 states the week prior. The red zone indicates more than 100 new cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days.

The latest briefing, dated Oct. 11, also shows 19 states and Washington, D.C. in the "orange zone," indicating between 51 and 100 new cases per 100,000 population last week.

Five states are in the "yellow zone," indicating between 10 and 100 new cases per 100,000 population last week, according to the latest briefing. For weeks, there was only one state -- Vermont -- listed in the green zone, but it has since been moved to the yellow zone.

Some of the states exhibiting particularly concerning trends, as detailed in the briefing, are Wisconsin, Indiana, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana.

ABC News' Josh Margolin and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

An ABC News analysis of COVID-19 trends across all 50 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico found there were increases in newly confirmed cases over the past two weeks in 35 states as well as the nation's capital.

The analysis also found increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 24 states plus D.C., increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 36 states and increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 11 states plus Puerto Rico.

The seven-day average of new cases in the United States has now surpassed 51,000, the highest it has been in nearly two months.

Six states -- Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia -- hit a record number of current COVID-19 hospitalizations in a day. One state -- Wisconsin -- reported its highest single-day increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases and also hit a peak of new deaths from the disease.

The trends were all analyzed from data collected and published by the COVID Tracking Project over the past two weeks, using the linear regression trend line of the seven-day moving average to examine whether a state's key indicators were increasing, decreasing or remained flat.

ABC News' Benjamin Bell, Brian Hartman, Soorin Kim and Arielle Mitropolous contributed to this report.

The number of patients admitted to intensive care units in Italy has jumped by 13.7% within the past 24 hours, as COVID-19 infections surge again in the country where the pandemic first took hold in Europe.

Italy's civil protection agency confirmed 5,901 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, an increase of 1,282 from the previous day. An additional 41 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered, the country's worst single-day death toll from the disease since June 17.

The cumulative totals now stand at 365,467 cases and 36,246 deaths.

Italy, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, introduced strict new nationwide measures on Tuesday after seeing a sharp uptick in cases in recent weeks.

The European country had gradually loosened restrictions during the spring and summer, following a nearly three-month lockdown that helped get its COVID-19 outbreak under control.

ABC News' Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.

A 45-year-old British man has suffered sudden complete hearing loss while being treated for COVID-19, which doctors say is the first such case in the United Kingdom.

A case study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal’s BMJ Case Reports said the man, who has asthma but is otherwise "fit and well," was hospitalized several days after developing COVID-19 symptoms. He was subsequently placed on a ventilator and transferred to the intensive care unit, where he remained intubated for 30 days.

The patient received remdesivir, intravenous steroids and plasma exchange to treat his COVID-19 infection, which clinically improved. A week after being taken off the ventilator and transferring out of the ICU, the man noticed ringing in his left ear followed by sudden onset hearing loss. He had no previous history of hearing loss or ear pathology, according to the case study.

Following a week of hearing loss, the patient saw an otolaryngology specialist and was treated with steroids. His hearing partially recovered after completing a seven-day course, according to the case study.

The researchers -- from the University College London and Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital -- noted that there are only a few other reported cases of hearing loss following COVID-19 infection.

"This is the first reported case of sensorineural hearing loss following COVID-19 infection in the U.K.," the researchers wrote. "Given the widespread presence of the virus in the population and the significant morbidity of hearing loss, it is important to investigate this further."