WASHINGTON - The United States has set a new world record as its single-day COVID-19 cases topped over 110,000 on Thursday.

A total of 117,988 new cases and 1,135 new deaths were recorded on Thursday, according to data updated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday.

The new number broke the previous record of 106,537 single-day cases on Wednesday. The country had added over 100,000 cases in two consecutive days respectively, which marked a grim milestone since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The surge had been predicted by experts months ago. In June, with daily cases hovering around 40,000, Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned the country was on track to hit 100,000 daily cases if the nation did not work harder to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The 7-day average case count also set a new record at over 93,000 on Thursday, CDC data show.

Currently more than 252,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported across more than 1,700 US colleges and universities, according to The New York Times. More than 50 campuses have marked 1,000 COVID-19 infections while 400 colleges have reported at least 100 cases.

The majority of infections occurred as students returned to school for the fall semester.

While young adults are at lower risk for severe disease and death compared to older adults and those with preexisting conditions, experts are concerned young adults could transmit the virus to those at higher risks and can also become seriously ill themselves.

As nationwide COVID-19 cases soar, the number of hospitalized Americans is also climbing, and experts warn that could lead to a rise in deaths.

The United States currently has more than 53,000 hospitalized patients, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

A new ensemble forecast by the CDC predicts that a total of 250,000 to 266,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by the end of November.

The United States has recorded more than 9,678,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 235,500 deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.