COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to grow dramatically following Thanksgiving, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News.

The country recorded 1,414,153 new cases between Dec. 3 and Dec. 9, according to HHS. This represents a 25.4% increase from the previous seven-day period, the memo said.

There were 15,588 new deaths recorded from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9, which was a 44.9% jump in new fatalities compared with the previous week, according to the memo.

Roughly 31% of U.S. hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, HHS reported.

Several states saw new records during the last seven days, according to the memo.

In Alabama, new weekly coronavirus deaths increased by 158% with 312 new fatalities recorded, according to HHS.

On Dec. 7, 19 Georgia hospital ICUs could not accept any more patients, the memo said.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin

The FDA authorized LabCorp’s Pixel COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit Wednesday for use by patients 18 years and older without a prescription.

The test allows a customer to self-collect a nasal swab sample at home and then send that sample for testing to LabCorp. The company will phone the customer with the results.

The at-home test is currently available for purchase online and the company is taking requests from retailers to sell it in stores.

LabCorp told ABC News it will screen requests to limit it to people who meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for testing in order to limit backlogs in their labs.

-ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs and Ali Dukakis

Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer broke down as she revealed the latest tallies of coronavirus cases and deaths Wednesday.

There were 9,243 new cases and 75 new deaths recorded Wednesday, according to the health department. The county has seen 475,271 total cases and 8,075 total deaths during the pandemic.

"The more terrible truth is that over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back and their deaths are an incalculable loss to their friends and their family, as well as our community," Ferrer said while breaking down in tears.

Roughly 3,200 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles, 23% of whom are in the intensive care unit and 15% on ventilators, according to the health department.

"Given that we are just now seeing the hospitalizations from the Thanksgiving holiday, we anticipate that the number will continue to grow over the next few weeks with potentially 700 new daily COVID hospitalizations in just one week from now," Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the LA County Health Services Department, said.

-ABC News' Cammeron Parrish

The Big Ten Conference Administrators Council voted Wednesday to eliminate the game minimum requirement for teams to play in the conference championship, clearing the way for Ohio State to play for the title despite only playing five games this season due to COVID-19 cancellations.

Among the cancellations was this weekend's game against University of Michigan after Michigan reported "an increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases and student-athletes in quarantine."

The conference said, "The decision was based on a competitive analysis which determined that Ohio State would have advanced to the Big Ten Football Championship Game based on its undefeated record and head-to-head victory over Indiana regardless of a win or loss against Michigan."

Ohio State will play Northwestern in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.

The conference had voted prior to the season that a team must played at least six games to qualify for the title game.

For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the United States is reporting an average of nearly 2,200 deaths from the disease per day, according to an ABC News analysis of data collected and published by The COVID Tracking Project.

The national seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths per day day is currently 2,171. That figure has increased by 139% in the past month.

Last week, there were nearly 15,000 fatalities from the disease recorded nationwide, including five days where the daily death toll surpassed the 2,000 mark. That's roughly equivalent to 88 COVID-19 deaths reported each hour.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has reported over 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day for more than a month straight, including three consecutive days where the daily count topped 200,000.

Just in the last month, the national seven-day average of daily new cases has doubled, now averaging 191,736 -- the highest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.

There were 1,018,657 cases recorded nationwide in the first five days of December. To put that in perspective, it took nearly 100 days from the first recorded COVID-19 case in the U.S. for the country to surpass 1 million confirmed cases.

Hospitalizations continue to surge to unprecedented levels, with over 101,000 patients currently hopitalized with COVID-19 across the country -- a new national record.

In the past two months, current hospitalizations have more than tripled, increasing by 223%.

ABC News' Benjamin Bell, Brian Hartman, Kim Soorin and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.