After more than 2,500 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in California Thursday, the state could top 125,000 COVID-19 cases by the end of the weekend.

Spikes in Los Angeles County and Imperial County contributed to the 2,928 coronavirus cases added to the state’s total Thursday, bringing the number of positive tests to 122,601 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data compiled by this news organization.

Sixty-eight people who had tested positive for COVID-19 died in California Thursday, bringing the death toll to 4,453 in the state.

The seven-day new case average in the state reached a new peak Thursday as California has averaged 2,681.14 new cases over the last week, the data shows. The peak surpasses the previous high of 2,608.57 from June 1.

Nearly half of the new cases and almost two-thirds of the deaths in California Thursday came from Los Angeles County, where 1,416 people tested positive and 42 people died.

In Imperial County, which added 227 positive tests Wednesday, an additional 468 people were added to the case count Thursday. Of the 2,493 confirmed cases in Imperial County to date, more than 25% have been counted in the last 48 hours.

Orange County, which added 105 cases Thursday, joined Los Angeles County (1,416), Imperial County (468), San Diego (142) and San Bernadino County (143) as the five counties with at least 100 new positive tests. Orange County also announced seven new COVID-19 deaths Thursday, marking the second-most in the state.

Kern County, where 45 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic, announced five additional COVID-19 deaths in the county.

Despite 93 new cases in Alameda County, which tops the Bay Area with 3,641 cases to date, counties in Northern California generally posted lower new case and death totals Thursday.

The 10-county Bay Area did not have any new COVID-19 deaths Thursday and all counties but Alameda announced fewer than 40 new cases.

Meanwhile, even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow, the state has seen a steady decline in the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.

State public health data shows that 4,455 people were hospitalized in California on Wednesday; 1,279 of those patients, or 28%, were in intensive care units. The highest number of total hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 was on April 7, when there were 5,792 patients.