Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee

In 44 states, the seven-day average of new cases dropped over 10%.

ByMorgan Winsor, Erin Schumaker, and Emily Shapiro
Last Updated: January 20, 2021, 6:29 AM EST

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 98.7 million people worldwide and killed over 2.1 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed this week. All times Eastern.
Jan 19, 2021, 2:38 PM EST

U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 400,000

The U.S. death toll surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday and now stands at 400,022 fatalities.

400,000 Americans Lost to Covid-19
400,000 Americans lost to Covid-19
ABC News, The Covid Tracking Project

The number of American lives lost to the coronavirus is more people than the number of U.S. soldiers who died in battle during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined, according to a data estimate compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The U.S. death toll is roughly equivalent to the population of Tampa, Florida, or Tulsa, Oklahoma.

PHOTO: An employee moves bodies of deceased patients to a refrigerated semi-truck at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on Jan. 14, 2021 in Tucson, Ariz. Refrigerated trucks were used for body storage amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
An employee moves bodies of deceased patients to a refrigerated semi-truck at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on Jan. 14, 2021 in Tucson, Ariz. After reaching capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, two refrigerated semi-trucks arrived at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner to provide extra storage.
Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

PHOTO: An employee prepares to move bodies of deceased patients to a refrigerated semi-truck at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on Jan. 14, 2021 in Tucson, Ariz. Refrigerated trucks were used for body storage amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
An employee prepares to move bodies of deceased patients to a refrigerated semi-truck at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on Jan. 14, 2021 in Tucson, Ariz. After reaching capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, two refrigerated semi-trucks arrived at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner to provide extra storage.
Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

By the middle of February, "we expect half a million deaths" in the U.S. from COVID-19, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who’s nominated to serve as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropolous contributed to this report.

Jan 19, 2021, 1:28 PM EST

US hospitalizations drop by 6%

In the last 10 days, the number of patients hospitalized nationally has declined by 6%, according to ABC News' analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.

A nurse wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) attends to a patient in a suspected Covid-19 patient triage area set up in a field hospital tent outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital on Jan. 6, 2021 in Los Angeles.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

California has the most hospitalizations with more than 20,000 patients.

Texas has the second most with nearly 14,000 patients, followed by New York, Florida and Georgia.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropolous contributed to this report.

Jan 19, 2021, 12:16 PM EST

Panel probing global pandemic response says the worst is 'yet to come'

An independent panel backed by the World Health Organization and tasked with investigating the global response to the coronavirus pandemic warned in a new report released late Monday that "the worst of the pandemic and its impact are yet to come."

The panel put some blame on China -- where the novel coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan -- saying that Chinese authorities could have applied public health measures “more forcefully” in January 2020.

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic board a bus following their arrival at the airport in Wuhan, China on Jan. 14, 2021.
Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

The panel said the WHO as well as national and local authorities could have issued more timely and stronger warnings on the potential for human-to-human transmission.

The panel also said that by the end of January 2020, all countries with a likely case should have implemented public health containment measures, but claimed only a minority of countries took full advantage of the information available.

The panel said its observations should be regarded as provisional because the investigations aren't complete and the pandemic is continuing to evolve.

ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

Jan 19, 2021, 11:41 AM EST

New record number of cases among kids in US

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association found over 211,000 new cases of COVID-19 among kids in the United States last week -- the highest amount since the pandemic began, according to a newly released report.

About 2.5 million children have tested positive since the pandemic started. From Dec. 31 to Jan. 14, there was an 18% jump in cases among children.

Children line up before attending class on the first day of a return to school during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Dec. 7, 2020.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters, FILE

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains rare among kids. Between 0.2% and 2.8% of all child COVID-19 cases have resulted in hospitalization, and children account for 0.00% to 0.17% of all COVID-19 deaths.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association warn that there’s an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm their long-term physical health as well as their emotional and mental health.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropolous contributed to this report.

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