The global death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic surpassed 5 million on Nov. 1, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
As of Nov. 1, more than 745,000 COVID-19 deaths occurred in the U.S. — nearly 15 percent of deaths worldwide — since the virus was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
The nation's confirmed COVID-19 death toll has surpassed that of the 1918 influenza pandemic, when an estimated 675,000 people died. Worldwide, it's estimated that at least 500 million people were infected — about a third of the world's population at the time — and 50 million deaths occurred, according to the CDC.
The grim COVID-19 milestone comes as U.S. cases continue to fall. The seven-day average for new cases was about 72,000 last week, less than half of the pandemic's most recent peak fueled by the delta variant, when average daily cases were 172,500 on Sept. 13.
The news also comes as the U.S. prepares to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11 after the FDA's authorization of Pfizer's COVID-19 shot for the age group on Oct. 29.