People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next, CDC panel says

There were 193,454 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the 42nd straight day that the U.S. has reported over 100,000 newly diagnosed infections. Monday's tally is less than the country's all-time high of 231,775 new cases confirmed on Dec. 11, according to Johns Hopkins data.

An additional 1,441 deaths from the disease were also registered nationwide on Monday, bringing the cumulative count past the 300,000 mark. Monday's death toll is down from a peak of 3,300 fatalities on Dec. 11, according to Johns Hopkins data.

A total of 16,519,628 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 300,482 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. 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 over the summer.

The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4 and reaching 200,000 for the first time on Nov. 27.

The United States set a new record for hospitalizations on Monday, the COVID Tracking Project reported.

At least 110,549 Americans are currently hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the health data.

"AZ and NV have the highest hospitalizations per million people in the country. Current hospitalizations in AZ have surpassed the state's peak in the summer," the tracking project tweeted.

The seven-day averages for key health data points also reached new records Monday, the tracking project reported.

The seven-day average of newly recorded cases was 213,293, the seven-day average for newly reported hospitalizations was 107,856 and the seven-day average for newly recorded fatalities was 2,435, according to the health data.

Members of the National Guard will help distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in 26 U.S. states and territories, a National Guard official said during a press briefing Monday.

National Guard commanders from Ohio, West Virginia and Oklahoma detailed the limited role their members will play in their respective states.

It will work with state departments of health to break down the large 975-batch Pfizer packages into smaller packages as needed, and use rented vehicles and equipment to transfer packages from main hubs to satellite sites for further distribution.

ABC News' Matt Seyler contributed to this report

The number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 300,000 on Monday, according to real-time data from Johns Hopkins University.

The grim milestone comes after the U.S. logged 3,124 fatalities from the disease in a single day last week, the highest one-day COVID-19 death toll the country has reported since the pandemic began.