Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee
In 44 states, the seven-day average of new cases dropped over 10%.
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.
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COVID-19 fatality rate increases in UK
The United Kingdom reported a record 1,610 new fatalities from COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the country's weekly death toll to 8,267 -- a 19.8% increase over the previous week.
The U.K. -- an island nation of 66 million people made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- has the fifth-highest number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 worldwide, behind the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Despite the record death toll, the daily number of new cases is on the decline in the U.K. amid national lockdowns. The U.K. reported 33,355 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the weekly total to 302,802 -- a 22.3% decrease from the last week.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.