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.

Seychelles Tourism Minister Sylvestre Radegonde has announced that the island nation is reopening its doors to all tourists, as long as they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In addition to providing proof that they have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, visitors must also produce a negative COVID-19 test taken within the 72 hours prior to their arrival in order to be exempt from quarantining, Radegonde said at a press conference last week.

From mid-March, those who wish to visit Seychelles will only need to provide a negative COVID-19 test result as the country hopes to have 70% of its population vaccinated by that point, Radegonde said.

Sybille Cardon, chairperson of the Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association, told the state-owned Seychelles News Agency that the new measures to reopen the country will not help the tourism industry immediately.

"It is definitely not something that will help us immediately because, as you know, in Europe they want to vaccinate everyone with at least the first dose of the vaccine," Cardon said Monday. "The second dose will not be administrated in three weeks, as previously said. It will be done in about 2 to 3 months as they want to give the first dose to the majority of people. This means that the decision taken will not have a direct impact."

Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago located off the coast of East Africa with a population of just under 100,000, has reported 746 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including two deaths, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday that he will be self-isolating at home for the rest of the week.

Hancock said he was pinged by the U.K. National Health Service's COVID-19 app on Monday night, alerting him that he had been in "close contact" with someone who has tested positive.

"So that means I'll be self-isolating at home, not leaving the house at all until Sunday," Hancock said in a video statement posted on Twitter. "This self-isolation is perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing, because I know from the app that I've been in close contact with someone who has tested positive and this is how we break the chains of transmission."

"So you must follow these rules, like I'm going to," he continued. "I've got to work from home for the next six days and together, by doing this, by following this and all the other panoply of rules that we've had to put in place, we can get through this is and beat this virus."

Hancock recently came under fire by British tabloids after he was seen in a crowded park in north London on Saturday. The current lockdown restrictions in England bars people from leaving their homes except for a very limited set of exemptions, including to shop for basic necessities, outdoor exercise and to go to work if they cannot do so from home. A photograph of Hancock surfaced after British Boris Johnson had released a video urging people to "think twice" before leaving their homes this weekend.

New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are seeing a "very encouraging" drop, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

The number of weekly cases decreased 21% as of Saturday, the tracker said. There were "more modest but very welcome" drops in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations as well.

The seven-day average for cases is back to "pre-Thanksgiving levels," though the group noted there are still nearly three times as many new cases daily compared to the summer peak.