Texas has become the second U.S. state to have a total of more than 2 million diagnosed cases of COVID-19.

The Lone Star state surpassed the grim milestone late Tuesday, with a cumulative tally of 2,014,645 confirmed cases. California currently has 2,795,978, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

More people in the United States died of COVID-19 in the past week than they did from the flu during all of last season, data show.

There were an estimated 22,000 flu deaths nationwide during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The flu season was regarded as moderate and stretched out over several months.

By contrast, there were 23,119 new COVID-19 deaths reported between Jan. 6-12, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty

There were 4,056 deaths due to COVID-19 reported on Tuesday in the U.S., according to The COVID Tracking Project.

That marks the second time new deaths surpassed 4,000, based on the tracker's tally, following the record 4,081 reported less than a week ago on Jan. 7.

The seven-day average number of deaths reported Tuesday also set a new record, the tracker said.

There were 213,885 new cases and 131,326 people are currently hospitalized due to the virus in the U.S.

Deaths from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom have jumped, as the country battles a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus.

The U.K. reported 6,298 new COVID-19 deaths in the week ending Jan. 10, up from 4,165 the previous week, according to the World Health Organization's latest epidemiological report. There were 9.3 new deaths per 100,000 residents -- a 51% increase over the previous week, according to the WHO.

Elsewhere, the African region reported the highest percentage increases over any other region in cases and deaths during that time frame. There were over 174,000 new cases and over 4,300 new deaths, according to the report.

COVID-19 cases are on the decline in India, the second-most populous nation in the world. There were just over 126,000 new cases reported -- a 7% decrease in infections per 100,000 residents over the previous week, according to the report.

ABC News' Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

A new, more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in Mexico.

The strain, called B117, was confirmed in a 56-year-old foreign citizen who had traveled from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Dec. 28, and then to the northeastern city of Matamoros the following day. The individual was asymptomatic when he arrived in the country, according to Mexico's director general of epidemiology, Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra.

After testing positive for COVID-19, the man was admitted to a Mexican hospital last week where he remains intubated, Zegarra said.

Genomic sequencing of the patient's sample that tested positive for COVID-19 revealed its B117 lineage. More than 500 suspected cases of the U.K. variant have been tested in Mexico, but this is the country's first verified case, according to Zegarra.

Mexican health authorities are tracking contacts of the patient, including people who traveled on the same flight. Two individuals who showed symptoms have since tested negative for COVID-19, while another 31 are asymptomatic and remain in isolation. Officials have been unable to locate 12 others, Zegarra said.

The highly contagious strain has become prevalent in London and other parts of southeast England, after first being identified in the English county of Kent in September. The B117 variant has since been detected in over a dozen other countries.