The Washington Monument is temporarily closed, the Interior Department said, after several staff members were put in quarantine following contact with Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Bernhardt led a private Washington Monument tour earlier in the week.

The monument will reopen on Dec. 21, the Interior Department said.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.

The London Science Museum will display the vial and syringe that was used for the United Kingdom’s first Pfizer vaccination.

The first vaccine was administered on Dec. 8 to 90-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan.

“The empty vial and syringe from Margaret’s historic immunisation will now join the Science Museum Group Collection, a highlight of our significant COVID-19 Collecting project,” the Science Museum Group said.

ABC News’ Zoe Magee contributed to this report.

The U.S. has set new weekly records for number of deaths, cases and hospitalizations, according to ABC News’ analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.

With the U.S. is now averaging 2,560 new coronavirus-related deaths a day, more Americans are dying from COVID-19 than ever before.

Since Sunday, 19 states have reported a record number of patients hospitalized.

In the past seven days, the U.S. has reported 1,505,887 COVID-19 cases -- equal to nearly 150 Americans testing positive every the last six consecutive weeks, there has not been a single day with less than 100,000 new cases.

The U.S. is averaging 214,741 cases every day -- a record high. That is three times higher than the nation’s summer peak in July and nearly seven times higher than the country's record in April.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries regardless of income, announced Friday it now has supply agreements to provide nearly 2 billion doses of "several promising vaccine candidates" and could begin shipping them out in the first quarter of 2021, pending regulatory approvals.

There are 190 nations and territories participating in COVAX, which is coordinated by the World Health Organization, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The new deals include supply agreements with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

"The arrival of vaccines is giving all of us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said in a statement Friday. "But we will only truly end the pandemic if we end it everywhere at the same time, which means it’s essential to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries."

Meanwhile, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) announced Friday that it could potentially transport up to 850 tons of COVID-19 vaccines per month next year, should quantities become available. The humanitarian organization said commercial airlines will be able to deliver vaccines to almost all of the 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries participating in COVAX.

However, UNICEF estimates a funding gap of $133 million to cover on-the-ground logistics and the required equipment for vaccine storage in the world's poorest nations.

"The scale of the task is daunting, and the stakes have never been higher, but we are ready to take this on," Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF, said in a statement Friday. "Countries need urgent technical and financial support to strengthen their capacities for cold and supply chains, to train health workers, and to work with communities in combatting misinformation and building trust in vaccines. Without urgent funding and support, many of the poorest countries still risk being left behind."