The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths in the country rose by double-digit percentage points over the last week, according to an internal memo by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News.

There were 417,899 new cases confirmed during the period between Oct. 15 and Oct. 21, according to the memo. This number was a 14% increase from the previous seven-day period, HHS said.

A quarter of the nation's hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, according to the memo.

During that seven-day period there were 5,413 deaths recorded across the country, a 10.6% increase from the previous week, according to HHS.

The national test-positivity rate increased to 5.8% from 5.1% in week-to-week comparisons, HHS said.

The agency memo said 41 states and territories are in an upward trajectory of new cases, five jurisdictions are at plateau and nine are going down.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved remdesivir for use on hospitalized patients, making the drug the first and only approved treatment for COVID-19 in the U.S.

Remdesivir had already received emergency use authorization. The drug has been shown to speed the recovery time of hospitalized patients.

Remdesivir was among the drugs President Donald Trump was taking after his COVID-19 diagnosis.

ABC News' Eric Strauss and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

Ohio reported 2,425 new cases in the last 24 hours -- setting yet another record for highest daily case count.

“Of the 10 highest days of new cases reported, eight have occurred in just the past nine days. Nine have occurred in the month of October alone," Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday.

Ohio now has over 190,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 5,161 deaths.

"Sadly, our situation in Ohio continues to worsen,” DeWine tweeted.

"It's time to pay attention and get serious. The spread of COVID-19 is getting worse by the minute," the governor continued. "The government is not going to come knocking on your door to make sure you aren't having a party -- we all have a personal responsibility to take precautions and stay safe."

As cases rise in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a string of new rules Thursday, including that nonessential businesses must follow a curfew and close from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"Essential businesses like grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations will be able to stay open," Lightfoot tweeted.

Also among the new rules are: the last call for serving liquor will be 9 p.m. and bars without food licenses cannot have any indoor service.

The new regulations go into effect on Friday

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 hospitalizations over the past two weeks in 41 states plus Guam.

The analysis also found increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 27 states plus Guam and increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 17 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 31 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.

One state -- North Dakota -- hit a record number of new cases in a 24-hour reporting period. Nine other states -- Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and West Virginia -- saw a record number of current hospitalizations in day.

The United States is rapidly approaching an average of 60,000 new cases a day, with no signs of slowing. At its peak in July, the country reported an average of 66,000 new cases per day.

Over the last five and a half weeks, new cases across the nation have surged by more than 72%. More than 1 million cases have already been registered in the month of October alone, with over 412,000 reported in just the last seven days.

States across the Midwest such as Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin all continue to consistently report high numbers, while other states such as Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio continue to trend upward.

Additionally, nearly 40,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, the highest in almost two months.

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.