There were 187,833 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Thursday, marking the highest single-day increase in infections worldwide since the pandemic began, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the first time that the United States has reported over 180,000 newly diagnosed infections. Thursday's count shatters the country's previous record of 177,224 new cases on Nov. 13.

An additional 2,015 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Thursday, the highest since May 6 but still under a peak of 2,609 new deaths on April 15, according to Johns Hopkins data.

A total of 11,717,947 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 252,555 of them 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 and crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4.

The Pentagon’s top policy chief, Anthony Tata, has tested positive for COVID-19 after his Monday meeting with Lithuania’s defense minister, Raimundas Karoblis.

On Thursday. the Lithuanian embassy informed the Pentagon that the minister had tested positive for the virus.

During his visit to the Pentagon, Karoblis met with multiple senior leaders, including acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, the secretaries of the Army and Air Force and the secretary of the Navy. All have tested negative since their meetings. Tata is now self-isolating.

ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

There are 51 states and territories in an upward trajectory of new COVID-19 cases, according to an internal Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Thursday night.

Two jurisdictions are at a plateau, and one is going down, the memo said.

There were 1,151,468 new cases confirmed during the period of Nov. 12 to 18 -- a 35.4% increase from the previous seven-day period. There were 8,601 deaths, up 8.3% over the previous week.

The national test-positivity rate increased to 11.1% from 9.6% in week-to-week comparisons.

Across the country, 29% of hospitals have more than 80% of their ICU beds filled. That number was 17%-18% during the summertime peak.

Iowa, Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania in particular are seeing high rates of hospitalizations. In Ohio, hospitalizations could quadruple by Christmas at the current rate of growth, the memo said.

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report

Daily COVID-19 tests, cases and current hospitalizations in the U.S. all set new records on Thursday, based on tallies by The COVID Tracking Project.

There were 1,971 reported deaths -- the highest since May 7. North and South Dakota are reporting the highest totals of fatalities per capita in the U.S., according to the data.

States reported 1.8 million daily tests and 182,832 new cases, and 80,698 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the tracker.

Thirteen states, primarily in the Midwest, saw more than 1,000 cases per million people, it said.

"This wave of cases arrives in a moment when many hospital systems across the country are already inundated with COVID-19 patients and are warning of staff shortages," the COVID Tracking Project said in its weekly report

There aren't any indications that case numbers have peaked either, it said.

States reported 8,461 deaths this week, the highest weekly death count since May, the tracker said.

"The record levels of hospitalizations we’re already seeing will almost certainly be followed by a spike in the reported fatalities," it said.