COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of more than 4 million people worldwide.

The pandemic’s latest grim milestone was surpassed Thursday night, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Four countries account for about 44% of all deaths: the United States (606,220), Brazil (528,540), India (405,028) and Mexico (234,192).

However, the coronavirus’ devastation is believed to be even worse than those numbers indicate. In May, the World Health Organization said the true number of deaths from COVID-19 and related causes is likely to be two to three times what countries have officially recorded.

For example, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which analyzes virus data, estimates the actual number of deaths in the U.S. that can be attributed to COVID-19 is nearly 930,000. India’s already-whopping death toll during its peak this spring is widely believed to have been underreported. And North Korea claims it has not had any COVID-19 infections, yet leader Kim Jong Un last week berated top officials for failures in coronavirus prevention that caused a “great crisis.” 

Officially, there have been 185.1 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide. While deaths are down 8% over the past two weeks, cases are again on the rise — up 13% from 14 days ago, according to data from The New York Times.  

The world’s worst hot spots include Argentina, Colombia and Mongolia, while the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil and Cuba continue to struggle with containing the virus as well.

And while vaccines are circulating and bringing relief to some countries, including the U.S., the pace of COVID-19 deaths hasn’t slowed globally. It took the world 108 days to go from 2 million deaths to 3 million and another 92 days to reach the 4 million mark, but just 82 days to surpass 4 million.

While 13 countries — including the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the U.K. — have fully vaccinated the majority of their populations, scores of others have inoculated very few of their people because of limited access to shots. Many countries in Africa, Vietnam, Taiwan, Honduras, and Venezuela are among those that have vaccinated less than 1% of their populations.

On Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the “the world is at a perilous point in this pandemic” and reiterated that the death toll is likely an underestimate. 

Tedros criticized countries with high vaccination coverages for "relaxing as though the pandemic is already over” and dropping public health measures. He also said: “Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible. At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent."

In the United States, 45% of people have been fully vaccinated and 55% have received at least one shot, but it’s facing challenges in convincing millions of skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves. Last month, the Biden administration announced that it is donating 500 million doses to other countries over the next two years. That is in addition to a $4 billion pledge to COVAX, a worldwide initiative for distributing vaccines.