Coronavirus updates: New cases, deaths see double-digit increases in past week: HHS
The numbers of cases nationally grew 22.7% week over week.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.1 million people worldwide.
Over 43.8 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the virus has rapidly spread to every continent except Antarctica.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 8.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 226,606 deaths.
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US reports more than 66,000 new cases
There were 66,784 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily tally is nearly 6,000 more than the previous day but still less than the national record of 83,757 new cases set on Friday.
An additional 481 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide Monday, almost half the previous day's count and down from a peak of 2,666 new deaths in mid-April.
A total of 8,704,524 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 225,735 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
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 80,000 for the first time on Oct. 23.
Analysis shows COVID-19 positivity rates rising in 37 US states
An ABC News analysis of COVID-19 trends across all 50 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam found there were increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 37 states.
The analysis also found increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 35 states plus Puerto Rico and Guam, as well as increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 27 states.
Meanwhile, case numbers are higher -- a daily average of at least 15 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week -- and staying high in 33 states plus Puerto Rico and Guam, and case numbers are lower -- a daily average of under 15 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week -- but are going up in nine states.
Six states hit a record number of current hospitalizations in a day, while 16 states saw a record number of current hospitalizations in a week. Twenty states plus Puerto Rico reported a record number of new cases in a week. Six states reached a record number of new deaths in a week.
The United States is rapidly approaching an average of 70,000 new cases a day, the highest it has been since the start of the pandemic. Just a week ago, the country was averaging 57,000 new cases a day. That average has doubled in the last six weeks. Friday and Saturday marked the two highest days on record for the country, with a combined 165,678 new cases over the 48-hour reporting period.
The month of October is now on track to become the second-highest month on record for COVID-19 cases in the United States. Nearly 1.4 million daily cases have been reported since Oct. 1, and nearly half a million of those cases have been reported in the last seven days alone.
Midwestern states continue to struggle, reaching record-high daily figures on Saturday. But the Midwest is not alone. Since Oct. 3, the seven-day average of new cases in the South have risen by 45%, and the West is now reporting daily case numbers not seen since mid-August.
Even the Northeast, which had consistently reported improving trends after COVID-19 struck in the spring, has seen a concerning resurgence of the virus. Rhode Island hit an all-time high of new cases last week, and the average rate of positivity has now surpassed 5% in Massachusetts.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized nationwide continues to hover around 41,000. Just in the last month, current hospitalizations have increased by 40%.
In the Northeast, hospitalizations are nearing the 4,000 mark. The number of patients hospitalized in the Midwest is now the highest on record.
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.
New cases are up 26% in US while deaths increase 15%, HHS memo says
The number of new cases of COVID-19 recorded across the United States has increased substantially, as has the number of new deaths from the disease, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News on Monday night.
The memo, which is circulated among the highest levels of the federal government and is used to determine daily priorities for the agencies working on a COVID-19 response, said 40 U.S. states and territories are in an upward trajectory of new infections, while nine jurisdictions are at a plateau and seven others are in a downward trend.
There were 488,498 new cases confirmed during the period of Oct. 19-25, a 26% increase from the previous week. There were also 5,615 fatalities from COVID-19 recorded during the same period, a 15.1% increase compared with the week prior, according to the memo.
The national positivity rate for COVID-19 tests increased from 5.6% to 6.1% in week-to-week comparisons. Meanwhile, 22% of hospitals across the country have intensive care units that are more than 80% occupied. That figure is up from the summertime peak, when 17-18% of U.S. hospitals had 80% of ICU beds full, the memo said.
Arizona reported 848 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Oct. 21, its highest count since Aug. 26, according to the memo.
In the U.S. territory of Guam, which continues to be classified as a "red zone" for COVID-19 infections, an average of 89.7% of inpatient beds and 80.2% of ICU beds were occupied in the week ending Oct. 20, the memo said.
North Dakota saw a record high of 1,036 new cases on Oct. 20, surpassing the 1,000 mark of daily incident cases for the first time, according to the memo.
New Jersey reported 852 daily COVID-19 hospitalizations on Oct. 22, its highest since late July, the memo said.
Oklahoma reached a record 956 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Oct. 22. The previous record was set just two days earlier, according to the memo.
Utah reported an all-time high of 314 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Oct. 21, as several hospitals in the state reached capacity, the memo said.
ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.