As of Saturday 91,635 Americans were hospitalized with the virus, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Today’s highest rate of hospitalization since the pandemic began comes after weeks of rising infection rates nationwide, with 16 states reporting record numbers of daily new cases on Thursday and Friday.
Doctors and health officials fear the US is in for a dark few weeks with cases and deaths expected to climb rapidly because of holiday gatherings and travel.
Dr Celine Gounder, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board, offered a grave warning about forthcoming spikes on Saturday - after millions of Americans traveled for Thanksgiving against the advice of public health officials.
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'We fully expect that in about a week or two after Thanksgiving we will see an increase in cases first, then about a week or two later you'll start to see an increase in hospitalizations, and then another week or two after that you'll start to see deaths,' Gounder told CBS News, noting that symptoms of the virus can develop up to 14 days after exposure.
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'Unfortunately, that means that many people who celebrated with family, with friends over Thanksgiving will find themselves in the hospital, in ICUs over Christmas and New Years,' she added.
Health experts and politicians pleaded with Americans to avoid gathering for traditional communal Thanksgiving feasts this year, warning that socializing between households would accelerate the rate of community transmission and put even more stress on an already overwhelmed healthcare system.
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While some heeded those warnings and spent Thanksgiving with family via video calls, others chose to travel anyway.
On the day before Thanksgiving, typically one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States, more than 1.07 million people passed through US airports - the most of any single day since the start of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
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Nearly six million Americans traveled by air in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the TSA said, a number that is however less than half that of the same period last year.
Though it will take weeks for the holiday fallout to become clear, the numbers in many states are already concerning.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned on Sunday that the US could experience 'a surge superimposed upon that surge that we're already in' as a result of people ignoring guidance about Thanksgiving gatherings.
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Fauci emphasized that 'it's not too late to do something about this', urging people to be careful as they travel back home and adhere to quarantine guidelines.
He said he expects vaccines to be rolled out by the end of December, which could help curb the spread of the virus as well.
In an effort to mitigate the winter COVID-19 wave, more than 20 states have issued new restrictions.
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