The U.S. saw its largest single-day increase in nearly nine months Friday.
The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 613,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 57.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC on Tuesday, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission -- vaccinated or not -- wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.
New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery is requiring its staff be vaccinated as of Sept. 15.
Only staff with a medical or religious reason will be exempt, the hospital said Tuesday.
California State University, the nation’s largest university system that’s home to nearly 500,000 students, will require vaccinations for in-person students, staff and faculty.
"The current surge in COVID cases due to the spread of the highly infectious delta variant is an alarming new factor that we must consider as we look to maintain the health and well-being of students, employees and visitors to our campuses this fall," CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro said in a statement Tuesday.
Louisiana is in a "continued surge," logging 6,797 new daily cases on Tuesday, the second highest single-day case count since Jan. 6, the state’s Department of Health said.
The department said 99.56% of the cases are linked to community spread, not congregate settings like nursing homes.
New Orleans city officials said Monday that hospital capacity in the region and the state are being stretched to the limits due to a large uptick in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. New Orleans officials said 97% of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the state are unvaccinated.
St. Louis' top health official talked with ABC News Monday about Missouri's rising coronavirus cases and gave a stark warning to the rest of the country.
“The delta variant is a whole new virus," Dr. Sam Page, the county executive for St. Louis County, Missouri, told ABC News.
Since June, Missouri’s daily case average has surged by 500%, with the state now reporting its highest number of new infections since mid-January. Hospital admissions have more than doubled in recent weeks. They are up by 125% in the last month, according to Page.
At the same time, vaccinations have seen a slight increase the county, Page said. However, he reiterated that it will be at least another month before the county sees full effect of the vaccines in those patients.
“We just wish that we could get people vaccinated sooner because the illness has an unfortunate loss of life associated with it. And that's just a terrible thing to watch,” Page said.
Page said there was no “silver bullet” that will help increase vaccination rates across the state, or drive down cases immediately, but said that officials must work together fast.
“It's going to be multifactorial, a lot of education, a lot of time, a lot of comforting,” he said.
-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett and Arielle Mitropoulos
