There were 787,000 new unemployment claims filed in one week, according to the Labor Department. This number is slightly lower than last week's, but still higher than anything seen before the pandemic.

There are currently 19,563,905 total claims being filed for unemployment through different government programs.

ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

The U.S. has seen a record high daily death toll for the second day in a row, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

There were 3,744 COVID-19 deaths reported Wednesday, the highest since start of the pandemic, surpassing the previous record of 3,725 deaths reported Tuesday.

In the wake of the Trump administration falling short on its vaccination goal, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told "Good Morning America" Thursday, “We always knew that this was going to take a while to ramp up."

"The curve is rapidly increasing, in terms of number of people being vaccinated," Adams said. "So we shouldn't extrapolate from what happened yesterday to what's going to happen six months from now. What we should do is make sure that curve continues to go up and continue to support our state and public health departments, which is what we are doing."

The Trump administration had promised that 20 million people would be vaccinated by the end of the year.

As of Wednesday morning, 2,794,588 Americans had received vaccine doses and 12.4 million doses had been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There's vaccines manufactured. There's vaccines allocated. There’s vaccines delivered. And then there's vaccines put in arms,” Adams said. “From a federal perspective, we are on track to have 20 million people able to be vaccinated, doses on the ground, by the end of next week.”

Adams also urged Americans to celebrate New Year's Eve virtually.

“This has been a marathon, but we don't want to trip at the finish line,” Adams said. “We want to have a normal New Year’s next year, we want as many of our loved ones and family and friends as possible to be able to enjoy that New Year’s in 2021. The way we do that is by pulling together and sacrificing one more time so that we can ramp up these vaccinations and put this virus away for good.”

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.

The U.S. reported 3,903 deaths on Wednesday, a new record for daily fatalities, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations also reached a record high with 125,220 and there were 225,671 new cases, according to the tracking project.

"Holiday reporting delays are still markedly affecting testing, case, and deaths figures," the group tweeted.

The COVID Tacking Project said the death count included a backlog of 200 fatalities from Washington state.

"Even without this backlog, today's total would still be the highest to date," the tracking project tweeted.

It warned that more data disruptions are expected with the New Year's Day weekend.

New York State Police will refer ParCare Community Health Network to the New York Attorney General’s office for allegedly misappropriating the Moderna vaccine, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the Orange County-based health care provider obtained the vaccine under false pretenses, moved it to Brooklyn, and gave it to people who weren't on the priority list. While ParCare is the only organization currently under criminal investigation, the governor said recipients of the vaccine who violated the state's distribution plan could also face charges.

"Whenever you have a valuable commodity that is being dispensed you should expect fraud," Cuomo said.

Under New York's current plan for "1A" distribution, only medical workers, first responders and nursing home staff members are allowed to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Other groups will follow in future rounds.

"We take this very seriously," Zucker said in a statement last week. "Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

New York State Police and other investigators were at the ParCare location in Borough Park on Saturday night.

A spokesman for ParCare told ABC News Sunday evening that it is cooperating with the state investigation and will return its unused vials. ParCare received 2,300 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and 869 of those doses have already been administered, according to the spokesperson.

"ParCare followed all NYS DOH procedures for obtaining the Moderna vaccine and was approved by NYS DOH for distribution and by CDC as a network site. As a result, we have properly received the vaccines and have provided the documentation regarding the proper receipt of the vaccines to the NYS DOH," the spokesperson told ABC News.

With regards to the patients who received their first shot, ParCare said it will be "working with the state to ensure that we provide the second dose for our patients."

-ABC News' Ivan Pereira, Sasha Pezenik and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.