NEW YORK, May 17 -- The United States reached the grim milestone of 1 million novel coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 82.6 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 1,000,004 as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (1620 GMT), according to the tally.

California led the country in COVID-19 deaths, with 90,866 fatalities. Texas reported the second-highest fatalities of 88,254, followed by Florida with 74,239 deaths and New York with 68,683 deaths, the data showed.

States with more than 30,000 fatalities also include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Arizona.

The United States remains the country worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, both accounting for nearly 16 percent of the global cases and deaths.

Last year, U.S. COVID-19 deaths hit half a million on Feb. 22, topped 600,000 on June 15, reached 700,000 on Oct. 1 and exceeded 800,000 on Dec. 14. The death toll amounted to 900,000 on Feb. 4, 2022.

It took 113 days for the national death toll to climb from 500,000 to 600,000, 108 days to jump from 600,000 to 700,000, 74 days to soar from 700,000 to 800,000, 52 days to surge from 800,000 to 900,000 and 102 days to increase from 900,000 to 1 million.

  - Xinhua