Coronavirus updates: Over 7,000 Americans died in past week

The El Paso County Jail in Colorado has had 976 inmates and 85 staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

The outbreak at the jail was first reported on Oct. 26, when eight employees across varying assignments were found to be infected. The following day, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced that two more deputies who work there and eight inmates had tested positive.

"An aggressive, prioritized COVID testing schedule was implemented for staff and inmates," the sheriff's office said in a statement on its website, where it provides updates on the outbreaks as test results become available.

There were 911 inmates and 73 staff members who tested positive on Monday alone. It's unclear how many total inmates were in custody that day.

"The threat of further infection will continue to increase over the next several weeks," the sheriff's office said. "At this point in time, there have been no inmates who have had to be hospitalized. They are all being treated in the facility by our medical provider, WellPath."

Visitation at the jail remains closed.

There were 136,325 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Tuesday, marking a new single-day record, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the seventh straight day that the country has reported over 100,000 new infections. Tuesday's tally tops the nation's previous all-time high of 128,412 new cases recorded on Saturday.

An additional 1,420 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide Tuesday, down from a peak of 2,666 new deaths in mid-April.

A total of 10,257,825 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 239,683 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.

For the next two weeks, Nevadans need to live under the "Stay at Home 2.0" mentality to help relieve the strain on the health care and give time for contact tracing to catch up, Gov. Steve Sisolak said at a press conference Tuesday.

The governor is asking residents to avoid large and small gatherings and not leave the home unless necessary. He also said masks must be worn in public settings.

The state announced more than 1,300 new cases on Tuesday, and highest number of hospitalizations since mid-August on Monday.

Sisolak did not announce any new business closures on Tuesday, but said he would if the trends continued to get worse.

"Again, if we don't come together at this moment, I will be forced to take stronger action in 14 days," Sisolak said. "To be clear, I don't want to take stronger action. I do not want to implement more restrictions. I want this to improve and we can make it improve If everyone helps."

The U.S. recorded nearly 131,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, the highest single-day total since the pandemic started, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

The seven-day average of new cases is over 118,000, the health data showed.

The number of Americans hospitalized is over 62,000, another record, according to the data. Seventeen states, including Indiana, Ohio and Missouri, reported single-day hospitalization records.

The country's death toll was 1,347 Tuesday, the highest recorded since Aug. 19, according to The COVID Tracking Project. The seven-day average for new deaths has been on the rise over the last couple of days and is now at 991, according to the data.