The New CDC Director Just Issued This Very Dark COVID Warning - Yahoo Lifestyle

COVID-19 has already claimed the lives of almost 400,000 Americans, but in the next month alone, Walensky predicts another 100,000 people may die, bringing the total number to half a million.

17, Walensky said: "By the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country.

6, bringing the total number of deaths at that point to between 440,000 and 477,000 across the United States.

While new cases are peaking and starting to fall, that means hospitalizations and deaths are likely to climb next, hence the expected rise in death count.

Now, unfortunately, deaths and hospitalizations will continue to grow over the next two or three weeks because they're a lagging indicator.

"One of the things that this really demonstrates is our need to be vigilant and to have resources to do the surveillance, to make sure we understand what strains are here," she said.

We have to titrate and make sure that there are enough people getting vaccinated, but not too many as to overwhelm the system.".

In regards to any challenges getting that supply of vaccine into the arms of the public, Walensky added that "we have to make sure that there are enough vaccinators.

In order to quickly reopen schools, Walensky said "one of the things we want to do is make sure that we can vaccinate our educators and people in our school systems." Walensky said the Biden administration hopes to get enough teachers vaccinated, get necessary resources to elementary and middle schools, and bring down infection rates enough to be able to "[get] our K through eight kids back… that is the anticipated goal." And for more on the latest in where COVID is spreading, check out This Is How Bad the COVID Outbreak Is in Your State.

Yahoo Life asked experts to weigh in on some of the common questions people have about when and where they can get the COVID-19 vaccine