U.S. COVID-19 death toll tops 700,000 -- Johns Hopkins University

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

The United States reached the grim milestone of 700,000 coronavirus deaths on Friday evening, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 43.6 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 700,258 as of 8:21 p.m. local time (0021 GMT on Saturday), according to the university's tally.

California led the country in COVID-19 deaths, with 69,225 fatalities. Texas reported the second-highest fatalities of 65,529, followed by New York with 55,416 and Florida with 55,299, the data showed.

States with more than 22,000 fatalities also include Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio.

The United States remains the country worst hit by the pandemic with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 18 percent of the global cases and almost 15 percent of global deaths.

The U.S. COVID-19 deaths hit half a million on Feb. 22, and topped 600,000 on June 15. It took 113 days for the national death toll to climb from 500,000 to 600,000, and 108 days to soar from 600,000 to 700,000.