When President-elect Joe Biden takes the Oath of Office to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, Jan. 20, it will come on the one-year anniversary of a grim milestone: the United States’ first confirmed case of COVID-19.

Just days before Biden’s inauguration, the world hit another grim milestone: Over 2 million coronavirus deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, a little over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

As COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and rolled out globally to combat the global scourge, the pandemic continues to worsen in hotspots all over the world.

The global death toll eclipsed 1 million in September. It took eight months to reach 1 million lives lost, and less than four months after that to surpass 2 million.

The grim figure is equal to the population of cities such as Brussels or Vienna, and greater than the population of the cities of Phoenix (1.6 million), Philadelphia (1.5 million), and San Antonio (1.5 million). 

The United States leads the world in deaths from COVID-19 — over 389,000 — and over 23.3 million confirmed infections, a quarter of the world’s 93 million cases.

The next closest country in terms of deaths, Brazil, has seen over 207,000.

The U.S. recorded an all-time high of 4,327 deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

While the count is based on figures supplied by government agencies around the world, the real toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of inadequate testing and the many fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes, especially early in the outbreak.

It took eight months to hit 1 million dead. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million.

“Behind this terrible number are names and faces — the smile that will now only be a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He said the toll “has been made worse by the absence of a global coordinated effort.”

“Science has succeeded, but solidarity has failed,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.