A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation's most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week's reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.

A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.

ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

New York's hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.

During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.

"I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is," Hochul said. "Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that."

She continued, "And I'm anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID."

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it's unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

"The next few weeks are going to be tough for us," he told ABC's "The View" on Monday. "We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we're seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We're seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point."

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

"We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower," he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. "had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall" in cases

"I'm hoping that that’s what happens here too," he added.

-ABC News' Joanne Rosa

Starbucks is requiring its 220,000 workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine or be tested weekly, complying with the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for private businesses.

Employees must reveal their vaccination status by Jan. 10, according to a letter sent Monday by Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver, Reuters first reported.

"This is an important step we can take to help more partners get vaccinated, limit the spread of COVID-19, and create choices that partners can own based on what's best for them," Culver wrote.

Workers will have until Feb. 9 to be fully vaccinated.

Those who choose to undergo weekly testing instead will be responsible for obtaining their own tests -- which cannot be self-administered or taken at home -- and submitting results.

The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest association of physicians, has criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new quarantine and isolation guidance for COVID-19, saying the recommendations "are risking further spread of the virus."

The CDC updated its guidelines on Dec. 27, saying asymptomatic people who test positive for COVID-19 should self-isolate for five days rather than 10.

"The American people should be able to count on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for timely, accurate, clear guidance to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities. Instead, the new recommendations on quarantine and isolation are not only confusing, but are risking further spread of the virus," the American Medical Association's president, Dr. Gerald E. Harmon, said in a statement Wednesday night.

Harmon referenced data cited by the CDC in its rationale for shortening the isolation period, which estimates 31% of people remain infectious five days after a positive COVID-19 test, suggesting that data proves thousands of Americans could return to their lives while still infected.

"With hundreds of thousands of new cases daily and more than a million positive reported cases on January 3, tens of thousands -- potentially hundreds of thousands of people -- could return to work and school infectious if they follow the CDC’s new guidance on ending isolation after five days without a negative test," Harmon said. "Physicians are concerned that these recommendations put our patients at risk and could further overwhelm our health care system."

Harmon said a negative COVID-19 test should be required for ending isolation after a positive test, as reentering society without knowing whether an individual is still positive ultimately risks further transmission of the virus.

Although test availability remains an issue nationwide, Harmon also called on the Biden administration to ramp up production and distribution of tests, adding that "a dearth of tests at the moment does not justify omitting a testing requirement to exit a now shortened isolation."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos