The number of COVID-19 deaths is going in the wrong direction. A new record was broken yesterday. USA Today reports:

The United States reported 4,085 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, which was more than 200 deaths above Wednesday’s record, which broke Tuesday’s record, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. At that pace, an American is reported dead every 21 seconds.

America also blew way past a record for deaths in a week, with 19,349. That’s up nearly 400 deaths past the old record.

And sadly the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci told NPR things will probably get worse before they get better.

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. 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.

Watch more from CBS This Morning above.