NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 deaths reached the grim milestone of 1 million on Monday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global death toll rose to 1,000,555, with a total of more than 33.2 million cases worldwide as of 8:23 p.m. (0023 GMT Tuesday), the CSSE data showed.

The United States remains the worst-hit nation, with 7,147,241 cases and 205,031 deaths, accounting for more than 20 percent of the global caseload and death toll, respectively.

Brazil recorded 142,058 deaths, just shy of the U.S. death toll. India has the world's third largest fatalities of 95,542 and the second largest caseload of more than 6 million.

Countries with over 30,000 fatalities also include Mexico, Britain, Italy, Peru, France and Spain.

Global COVID-19 death toll surpassed 500,000 on June 28, and the number doubled in three months.

Given the seasonality of the infectious disease, the United States could continue to see an upward trend in new cases and deaths in the coming months as fall begins, warned some U.S. health experts.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said it projects 371,509 people in the United States may have died of COVID-19 by Jan. 1, 2021, based on current projection scenario.

Meanwhile, the second wave of the pandemic has swept across a number of European countries which have been witnessing a resurgence in new cases and deaths.