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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.