A memorial service for people who lost lives to COVID-19 is held in New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, Jan. 19, 2021. (Photo by Lan Wei/Xinhua)

The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 25 percent of the global cases and over 20 percent of the global deaths.

NEW YORK, Feb. 22  -- The United States reached the grim milestone of half a million coronavirus deaths on Monday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 28.1 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 500,071 as of 4:24 p.m. local time (2124 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

California replaced New York to become the U.S. state with the most fatalities, standing at 49,439. New York reported the country's second largest death toll of 46,917, followed by Texas with 42,291 deaths and Florida with 30,065 deaths, the CSSE tally showed.

States with more than 15,000 fatalities also include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Massachusetts and Arizona.

The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 25 percent of the global cases and over 20 percent of the global deaths.