A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 66.4 million people and killed over 1.5 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Colorado's first gentleman Marlon Reis, who was diagnosed with the coronavirus last week with his partner Gov. Jared Polis, was hospitalized Sunday after his condition worsened, the governor's office said.
Reis experienced a "slightly worsening cough and shortness of breath," on his eighth day of the virus, according to the governor's office.
Polis drove Reis in his own vehicle to the hospital, according to the governor's office.
"Governor Polis is not experiencing any additional symptoms at this time," the governor's office said in a statement.
-ABC News' Clayton Sandell
The U.S. has hit another record level for coronavirus related hospitalizations, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Our daily update is published. States reported 1.6 million tests, 177k cases, and 1,138 deaths. 101,487 people are currently hospitalized with COVID, another new record. Averaged across the last 7 days, each of our core metrics is at record levels. pic.twitter.com/z9RbCtA8Zo
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) December 7, 2020
There are at least 101,487 Americans hospitalized as of Sunday evening, the tracking project tweeted.
There were over 176,000 new cases and 1,138 new deaths recorded Sunday, according to the health data.
The seven-day average for the tracking project's main metrics also saw new record highs. The seven-day average for new cases was 191,736, for deaths were 2,171 and hospitalizations were 99,939, according to the health data.
The U.S. has now reported over 100,000 cases every day for more than a month straight, and over 200,000 cases for the last three consecutive days, according to health data.
The country reported more than 1.3 million COVID-19 cases in the last week, which is more than any other week on record, the health data showed.
In the last month, the average number of daily cases has doubled.
The U.S. is currently averaging over 186,793 new coronavirus cases every day, the highest the average has been since the beginning of the pandemic, according to health data.
Since last week, there have been nearly new 15,000 COVID-19 related deaths, with five days over the 2,000 mark, the health data showed.
That is roughly equivalent to 88 COVID-19 related deaths reported every hour.
The U.S. is currently averaging 2,123 reported COVID-19 deaths a day, that average has increased by 142% since last month, according to the health data.
Hospitalizations continue to surge to unprecedented levels, with over 101,000 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the country, according to the health data.
Current hospitalizations have nearly doubled in the last month, the health data showed.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Los Angeles County set a new record number of coronavirus cases Sunday, the Health Department said.
The county saw 10,528 new cases and 23 new deaths, according to the Health Department. There are 2,855 people currently hospitalized, the Health Department said.
Los Angeles leads the country with total number of cases, 439,408, and total fatalities, 7,886, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.
New research suggests England has seen roughly a 30% drop in COVID-19 infections three weeks into its second nationwide lockdown.
The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT) program, run by Imperial College London and research firm Ipsos MORI, is tracking current cases of COVID-19 in England by testing more than 150,000 randomly-selected people each month over a two-week period. An interim report released Monday from the latest round of testing, which includes results from more than 105,000 at-home tests between Nov. 13 and Nov. 24, shows that an estimated 0.96% of England's population -- or around one in 100 people -- is infected with COVID-19.
The study, which is commissioned by England's Department of Health and Social Care, also found that the overall reproduction (R) number has fallen to below 1 -- estimated at 0.88 -- meaning the country's outbreak is currently shrinking rather than growing.
"In this interim report from the seventh round of data collection, we found a reduction in national prevalence of infection by around 30% from the high levels in the latter half of round 6 (26 October to 2 November 2020)," the study's co-authors wrote in the report. "The national prevalence has now dropped to ~1%, a level last seen 6 weeks earlier. This fall in prevalence covers a period of nearly three of the four weeks of the second national lockdown, and is consistent with an observed reduction in the number of daily swab-positive cases recorded in routine surveillance data."
Paul Elliott, professor of epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial College London and director of the REACT program, called the data "encouraging" for England, which was under a regional tiered system of COVID-19 restrictions before entering lockdown again on Nov. 5. A tougher three-tier system will come into force when the lockdown ends just after midnight on Wednesday.
"We're seeing a fall in infections at the national level and in particular across regions that were previously worst affected. These trends suggest that the tiered approach helped to curb infections in these areas and that lockdown has added to this effect," Elliott said in a statement Monday. "As we approach a challenging time of year, it’s even more vital that through our actions and behaviors we all play our part in helping to keep the virus at bay."
