The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 600,000, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University. Globally, the virus has claimed the lives of 3.8 million people.

The United States leads the world in total deaths and accounts for 16% of the fatalities. Brazil's death toll ranks second in the world, with over 488,000 deaths. India ranks third with over 377,000 deaths as the country continues to deal with a surge in infections from the Delta variant.

"This pandemic is really beyond anything that we've ever experienced, and yet another milestone highlights the fact that we are still not yet out of the woods," Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital, told ABC News.

While the death toll is staggering and is approaching the number of Americans who died during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, there are some promising signs as the number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to decline.

It took four months for the number of deaths to climb from 500,000 to 600,000. It took just one month for the number of fatalities to rise from 400,000 to 500,000.

The number of new cases has dropped by 90% since January, when there were 300,000 new cases reported in a single day. Now, the U.S. is averaging around 15,000 new cases per day as more and more people get vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 145 million Americans are fully vaccinated, which is nearly 44% of the population. Over 174 million people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

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