LOS ANGELES, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles County hit another grim COVID-19 milestone on Tuesday, with the highest single-day number of new cases and hospitalized people since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 7,593 new cases and 46 new deaths in a daily release. The county, home to over 10 million residents, the most populous in the country, has seen 408,396 positive COVID-19 cases in total, with 7,700 deaths so far.

The number of new coronavirus cases significantly surpassed the previous high of 6,124 new cases in the last week, which signaled that the virus is infecting more people at an unprecedented rate in the county than ever before, said public health officials.

The daily test positivity rate on Tuesday in Los Angeles County is almost 12 percent, up from 7 percent a week ago.

A total of 2,316 people with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized in the county, with 24 percent in intensive care units, which exceeds the peak of 2,232 hospitalized people during the July surge, according to the department.

Officials said that the daily number of hospitalized people in the county has increased nearly every day since Nov. 1 when the daily number stood at 799.

The county's public health director Barbara Ferrer noted that "today is the worst day thus far of the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles County."

"However, it will likely not remain the worst day of the pandemic in Los Angeles County," she warned in the daily release. "That will be tomorrow, and the next day and the next as cases, hospitalizations and deaths increase."

"Every resident and every business needs to take immediate action if we are to dampen this alarming surge. We are in the middle of an accelerating surge in a pandemic of huge magnitude. This is not the time to skirt or debate the safety measures that protect us because we need every single person to use every tool available to stop the surge and save lives," Ferrer added.

"The risk of catching COVID-19 is extremely high right now in LA County and the safest place you can be is at your home and only with those you live with," tweeted the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn wrote in a tweet that COVID-19 is spreading in the county "even faster right now than our public health experts predicted."

Officials noted that younger people increasingly constitute the largest group of people that are infected and infecting others as 72 percent of new cases are among people under the age of 50.

The new daily record of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations came one day after the county imposed a new safer-at-home order to slow the spread of the virus.

The latest three-week order bans all public and private gatherings of people from different households, exempting religious services and protest. It urges people to stay home as much as possible and requires everyone to wear a face covering whenever they are engaging in activities outside their homes where they are or can be in contact with others not in their household. The order also sets new occupancy limits on various businesses.