For the first time in the pandemic, the United States on Wednesday saw more than 4,000 people die from COVID-19 in a single day.

According to John Hopkins University, 4,085 Americans succumbed to the disease. It’s the third straight day the U.S. has set a record for coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the country’s overall death toll to 365,346. The previous high, set Wednesday, was 3,767.

To put it into better perspective, one America on average died every 21 seconds Thursday from COVID-19.

While vaccines are being distributed, all the indicators point to more significant casualties in the coming weeks. On Thursday, there were 274,703 new confirmed cases in the U.S., its second highest single-day tally. According to The COVID Tracking Project, 132,370 people were hospitalized with the virus Thursday, a small downtick from Wednesday’s record high. 

Cases are up in all 50 states compared to a week ago. California, Nevada, Arizona and Alabama are among the states seeing the most per-capita hospitalizations.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR on Thursday that he expects the country’s death numbers to continue to rise. 

“As we get into the next couple of weeks in January, that likely will be a reflection of the holiday season travel and the congregate settings that usually take place socially during that period of time,” Fauci said. “We've seen following most events that require travel and ... have people, you know, understandably getting together in a social setting. So we believe things will get worse as we get into January.”

Fauci said Americans could “blunt that acceleration” by adhering to stricter public health measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, especially known a more contagious variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, is now spreading in the U.S.

As of Thursday morning, 21.4 doses of vaccines were distributed to states, but only 5.9 people had received their first doses, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show.

Nearly 21.6 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the United States during the pandemic, more than twice as many as any other country.