File photo: AP

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United States reached the grim milestone of 300,000 coronavirus deaths on Monday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 16.3 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 300,267 as of 3:26 p.m. local time (2026 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

New York state reported 35,643 fatalities, at the top of the U.S. state-level death toll list. Texas recorded the second most deaths, standing at 24,414. The states of California, Florida and New Jersey all confirmed more than 17,000 deaths, the CSSE tally showed.

States with more than 10,000 fatalities also include Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan and Georgia.

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

U.S. COVID-19 deaths hit 100,000 on May 27, and topped 200,000 on Sept. 22. It took nearly four months for the national death toll to climb from 100,000 to 200,000 and less than three months to jump from 200,000 to 300,000.

The United States has seen daily cases, deaths, and hospitalizations soar to record highs after entering December.

On Dec. 11, the country added 3,300 deaths, the highest single-day rise in death toll since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, U.S. daily cases surged to 231,775 on Dec. 11, setting a new record, the CSSE chart showed.

In addition, current hospitalizations in the United States hit an all-time high of 109,331 on Sunday, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

An updated model forecast by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projected a total of 502,256 COVID-19 deaths in the United States by April 1, 2021, based on current projection scenario.