The US reached the grim milestone of 600,000 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 33.4 million, the death toll across the US rose to 600,012 as of 12:22 pm local time (1622 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

California topped the national death toll list, standing at 63,191. New York reported the country’s second largest deaths of 53,558, followed by Texas with 51,940 deaths and Florida with 37,265 deaths, the CSSE tally showed.

States with more than 20,000 fatalities also include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The US remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world’s highest caseload and death toll, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the global cases and over 15 per cent of the global deaths.

US Covid-19 deaths increased at a slower pace from 500,000 to 600,000 in nearly four months, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.