The single-day new cases set another new record since the onset of the pandemic in the United States, pushing the 7-day average daily increase to an all-time high of 212,144 cases.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) — The United States has just recorded all-time high single-day COVID-19 new cases and hospitalizations as an advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended on Thursday to authorize American drugmaker Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

A total of 236,913 COVID-19 cases and 3,435 deaths were reported across the country on Wednesday, according to data updated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

The single-day new cases set another new record since the onset of the pandemic in the country, pushing the 7-day average daily increase to an all-time high of 212,144 cases.

Wednesday’s death toll also marked the highest since late April.

There were 113,069 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the country as of Wednesday, a new record for hospitalizations, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

The 7-day average for deaths is rising in 23 states across the country.

Long-term care (LTC) cases and deaths both increased by the most since late May. A staggering 5,094 deaths and 61,097 cases last week made it one of the most devastating weeks for LTC residents and staff, according to the tracking project.

“While COVID-19 continues to surge in LTC facilities, vaccines will soon arrive for these high-risk populations. Vaccines have the potential to prevent future COVID-19 outbreaks, but for many LTC residents and workers, they will come too late,” the project tweeted.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the FDA met on Thursday and voted 20-0 with one abstention to support the agency issuing emergency use authorization to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273.

It is the second COVID-19 vaccine in the country, following FDA’s approval of the first one developed by American drugmaker Pfizer in partnership with German company BioNTech.

Last Friday, the FDA authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. The country started its COVID-19 vaccine rollout nationwide on Monday.

The United States has recorded more than 17.16 million cases with over 310,000 related deaths as of Thursday evening, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Xinhua