Treating the coronavirus
Treating the coronavirusiStock

A record number of coronavirus cases were reported in the United States on Thursday, breaking a record set Wednesday of more than 100,000 cases in a single day, NBC News reports.

A total of 120,048 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the US on Thursday, about 16,000 more than the number reported the previous day, according to an NBC News tally.

The United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world. More than 236,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the US, the data showed.

Hospitalizations and case counts have surged across much of the country with the Midwest and Southwest getting hit the hardest. Doctors and officials have warned people that hospitals could quickly become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

Wisconsin saw the one of the largest single-day increases in the country on Wednesday, with nearly 6,000 new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Last week, the United States surpassed 9 million cases of COVID-19.

Amid the wait for a vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that experts will know by early December whether a potential coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective, but widespread availability will probably not happen until next year.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Fauci said, "We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, beginning of December. The amount of doses that will be available in December will not certainly be enough to vaccinate everybody -- you'll have to wait several months into 2021."

He added that the vaccination of a "substantial proportion of the population" so there could be a "significant impact on the dynamics of the outbreak" may not be possible until the second or third quarter of 2021.