A U.S. Coast Guard vessel on a counter-narcotics patrol was forced to return to its base in California on Wednesday, after 11 crew members tested positive for COVID-19.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton set out from its homeport in Alameda on Oct. 28 to begin a counter-narcotics patrol in the Eastern Pacific. Prior to departure, the crew was required to self-quarantine and test negative for COVID-19 twice, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.

Last week, several crew members began to develop mild COVID-19 symptoms and were administered rapid testing kits on board. All affected personnel and their close contacts were identified and quarantined, according to the press release.

Coast Guard medical staff conducted testing of the ship's entire crew, who then went into quarantine. The infected crew members are receiving medical care, according to the press release.

"The crew's health and safety is my highest priority," Stratton's commanding officer, Capt. Bob Little, said in a statement Wednesday. "Stratton has a highly resilient crew, always dedicated to the mission. Our mission today is to get healthy so we can continue our service to the nation."

Russia's COVID-19 case count surpassed the 2 million mark on Thursday morning, as the number of new infections and daily deaths hit record highs.

Russia confirmed 23,610 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the country's highest single-day tally since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, an all-time high of 463 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide over the past day, marking the third straight day that Russia set a new record for its daily death toll from the disease, according to the country's coronavirus response headquarters.

Russia's cumulative total now stands at 2,015,608 cases, including 34,850 deaths, according to the coronavirus response headquarters. It's the second country in Europe and the fifth in the world to reach the grim milestone of 2 million total cases.

The Eastern European nation of 145 million people has the fifth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India, Brazil and France, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report

There were 170,161 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Wednesday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the sixth day in a row that the country has reported over 150,000 newly diagnosed infections. Wednesday's count is slightly less than the all-time high of 177,224 on Nov. 13.

An additional 1,848 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Wednesday, the highest since May 7 but still under a peak of 2,609 new deaths on April 15.

A total of 11,529,818 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 250,537 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.

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.

New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. increased nearly 40% in week-over-week comparisons, according to an internal Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News.

The number of new cases confirmed from Nov. 11 to 17 (over 1.1 million) was a 38.9% increase from the previous seven-day period, the memo said. The national test-positivity rate increased to 11% from 9.3% during that time.

Deaths also increased 8.4% in week-to-week comparisons, the memo said.

Across the country, 27% of hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled. That number was 17% to 18% during the summertime peak.

Arkansas and Indiana have recently reported record hospitalizations, HHS said, while Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma have also seen notable increases. In Minnesota, the areas bordering Wisconsin are reporting over 85% usage of critical care beds at hospitals, according to the memo.

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

Pfizer said it's completed its submission to the Food and Drug Administration in which the company requests emergency use authorization for its vaccine.

The FDA is expected to start digging into the efficacy and safety data immediately, and it could make a decision as early as mid-December.

ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.