The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 topped 800,000 on Tuesday, a once-unimaginable figure seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking last spring.
The number of deaths, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Minneapolis and Cleveland put together.
It is roughly equivalent to how many Americans die each year from heart disease or stroke.
'This will be a defining tragedy of our generation,' David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
'We've gotten to the point where our eyes glaze over on these numbers. But by now, almost every one of us knows someone who has died of COVID-19.'
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., center, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, are joined by bipartisan members of House and Senate to hold a moment of silence for 800,000 American lives lost to COVID-19, on the steps of the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday
Members of the House and Senate pick up their electric candles before joining a vigil outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress held a candlelight vigil and moment of silence outside the Capitol to honor the 800,000 Americans who have died from the virus
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (C) joins fellow members of the House and Senate in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda before holding a vigil on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (C) walks past the painting depicting the baptism of Pocahontas before joining fellow members of the House and Senate in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for a vigil
On Tuesday night, President Joe Biden made a statement noting the sombre milestone.
'As we mark the tragic milestone of 800,000 American deaths due to COVID-19, we remember each person and the lives they lived, and we pray for the loved ones left behind. I know what it's like to stare at an empty chair around the kitchen table, especially during the holiday season, and my heart aches for every family enduring this pain,' Biden said.
'To heal, we must remember. We must also act. That's exactly what we have done over the past 11 months. We stood up a historic vaccination program, and 240 million Americans have stepped up and gotten at least one shot. As a result, we have saved over one million American lives, and spared families in every community across the country the incalculable loss that too many others have suffered.
'Today, more than 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated, and each day, more people are getting boosted than ever before. As we head into the winter and confront a new variant, we must resolve to keep fighting this virus together. This means getting vaccinated and getting your booster shot, and taking other prevention measures, such as masking,' he continued.
'The vaccines are safe, effective, free, easy, and our best tool to prevent more loss and pain. If you were fully vaccinated before mid-June, please go get your booster shot as soon as possible. And if you haven't already — please get yourself and your school-age children vaccinated.
'I urge all Americans: do your patriotic duty to keep our country safe, to protect yourself and those around you, and to honor the memory of all those we have lost. Now is the time,' Biden said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) join fellow members of the House and Senate for a vigil at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday
The senators and representatives observed a moment of silence for the 800,000 Americans who have died of the coronavirus
On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it was preparing for an 'explosion' of Omicron cases that they believe will result in a flood of sick Americans going into the already overburdened hospital system.
'Everything points to a large wave. A large wave is coming,' a senior administration official in President Joe Biden's White House told Axios.
The official, however, expressed hope the cases wouldn't be as severe as previous COVID variants including Delta as the White House continues to push booster shots as the best protection.
'It will be fast. It won't be as severe, but regrettably, there will be plenty of hospitalizations,' the person said.
Omicron now makes up three per cent of all new US infections and has been detected in 33 U.S. states including Alaska and the District of Columbia, the CDC said on Tuesday. In New York and New Jersey, 13 percent of new cases have been caused by the new strain.
Omicron is now in 33 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, including far off Alaska, as the mutant strain that has dominated the world in recent weeks continues its rampant spread across America
Despite the high vaccination rate, the US has lost more lives this year than in 2020 due to the Delta variant and the percentage of those who did not receive the shot
California brought back its mask mandate for all indoor places across the state on Monday, joining New York who did the same last week. In Philadelphia, residents must now show proof of vaccination to enter bars and restaurants, like in New York City.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still reports that 97 percent of sequenced cases are of the Delta variant, though Omicron has quickly grown from an insignificant variant in sequencing to making up three percent of cases.
In Washington state, one of the first places Omicron was detected in the US, the variant is spreading rapidly.
Researchers at the University of Washington found that 13 percent of 217 positive COVID specimens collected on Wednesday had the omicron mutation. That was up from about 7 percent of samples they had tested from the day before, and 3 percent from the day before that.
Omicron was first detected in the state two weeks ago.
As the holiday season approaches - where more people travel and gather in large groups - some states are reimposing face masks requirements and gearing up for a spike in cases, particularly as the highly-transmissible omicron variant gains steam.
Dr Anthony Fauci has said preliminary data suggests the omicron strain is less deadly than delta, but also cautioned that it is too early to say for sure.
Visitors walk around a memorial for victims of COVID-19 at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles
Since the start of the year, over 450,000 people in the United States have died after contracting COVID-19, or 57 percent of all U.S. deaths from the illness since the pandemic started.
The deaths this year were mostly in unvaccinated patients, health experts say.
Deaths have increased despite advances in caring for COVID patients and new treatment options such as monoclonal antibodies.
It took 111 days for U.S. deaths to jump from 600,000 to 700,000, according to Reuters analysis. The next 100,000 deaths took just 73 days.
Among the Group of Seven (G7) wealthiest nations, the United States ranks the worst in terms of per capita deaths from COVID-19 between January 1 and November 30, according to analysis by Reuters.
The death rate in the United States was more than three times higher than in neighboring Canada and 11 times more than Japan.
Even when the United States is compared with a larger pool of wealthy countries with access to vaccines, it ranks near the bottom.
Among the 38 members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States ranks 30th. Only Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia Colombia, Poland and Slovenia had more COVID-19 deaths per capita. New Zealand had the least.
When compared with the European Union, the United States has 1.3 times the per capita deaths reported in the last 11 months than the entire bloc.
Among more than 200 nations and territories tracked by Reuters, the United States ranks 36th.
New infections in the United States are averaging around 120,000 a day, with Michigan contributing the most cases a day. 
The United States has the highest reported toll of any country.
The U.S. accounts for approximately 4% of the world's population but about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak began in China two years ago.
The true death toll in the U.S. and around the world is believed to significantly higher because of cases that were overlooked or concealed.
A closely watched forecasting model from the University of Washington projects a total of over 880,000 reported deaths in the U.S. by March 1.
Fears of the new variant have prompted Americans to line up for booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines at a record pace.
Just under a million people a day received booster doses of one of the three authorized vaccines last week, the highest rate since regulators gave the nod to additional shots.
'We must act together in this moment to address the impact of the current cases we are seeing, which are largely Delta, and to prepare ourselves for the possibility of more Omicron,' U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing.
Officials say that a vaccine booster provides good protection against the Omicron variant, but the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that a third of US Omicron cases were boosted.
Although 400,000 lives were lost under President Trump, that number has now been surpassed under President Biden
Steve Grove, a chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center, prays in a COVID-19 patient's room in Minneapolis
Maya Goode, a COVID-19 technician, left, talks with Sami Perez, 12, after he received a COVID-19 test outside Asthenis Pharmacy in Providence, Rhode Island, earlier this week
Health experts lament that many of the deaths in the United States were especially heartbreaking because they were preventable by way of the vaccine, which became available in mid-December a year ago and was thrown open to all adults by mid-April of this year.
About 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated, or just over 60% of the population which is well short of what scientists say is needed to keep the virus in check.
'Almost all the people dying are now dying preventable deaths,' said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 'And that's because they're not immunized. And you know that, God, it's a terrible tragedy.
Despite the high vaccination rate, the US has lost more lives this year than in 2020 due to the Delta variant and the percentage of those who did not receive the shot.
This comes after the presence of the new highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus which originated in South Africa.
When the vaccine was first rolled out, the country's death toll stood at about 300,000. It hit 600,000 in mid-June and 700,000 on October 1.
People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing site in Times Square, New York on Monday
Medical staff move a COVID-19 patient who died onto a gurney to hand off to a funeral home
Registered nurse, Noleen Nobleza, center, inoculates Julio Quinones with a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic set up in the parking lot of CalOptima in Orange, California earlier this year
The U.S. crossed the latest threshold with cases and hospitalizations on the rise again in a spike driven by the highly contagious delta variant, which arrived in the first half of 2021 and now accounts for practically all infections.
Now the omicron variant is gaining a foothold in the country, though scientists are not sure how dangerous it is.
Beyrer recalled that in March or April 2020, one of the worst-case scenarios projected upwards of 240,000 American deaths.
'And I saw that number, and I thought that is incredible - 240,000 American deaths?' he said. 'And we're now past three times that number.' He added: 'And I think it's fair to say that we're still not out of the woods.'
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 topped 800,000, a figure seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became widely available
Almost a fifth of Americans have now received their COVID booster: Maine and Vermont see the biggest uptake with 28% jabbed, while Alabama has the lowest uptake - just 9%
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