Coronavirus has killed more than 1 million people worldwide

Coronavirus has killed more than 1 million people worldwide As the global coronavirus death toll hits a grim milestone, the medical community has at least learned lessons from the losses. Zoe Christen Jones CBSHealth

Since outbreaks began at the end of 2019, the coronavirus has ripped through country after country, sickening more than 33 million people worldwide and killing over 1 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The staggering death count reported Monday comes nine months after the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China.

The United States currently leads the world as the country with the most confirmed cases and the highest death toll. On September 22, the U.S surpassed 200,000 virus deaths, just eight months after the country's first reported case. There are currently 29 states reporting an increase in new cases compared to two weeks ago, and several Midwestern states have reported record cases and hospitalizations. 

India is soon expected to surpass the U.S. in positive cases, as high hospitalization rates have climbed in large cities like Mumbai and New Delhi. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly modeled the U.K.'s new virus response after Sweden's, a country that has seen over 5,800 deaths among a population of a little over 10 million. In the U.K., positive cases have passed 441,000 and are spiking once again. In Brazil, poor conditions and lax restrictions have driven positive case numbers past 4.7 million, along with over 141,700 deaths.

While nowhere near the most fatal pandemic in history, which is reserved for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that claimed 50 million lives, the coronavirus' survival rate and death toll makes it utterly unique and deadly among modern pandemics. There are more than 31 million coronavirus cases confirmed worldwide, with death tolls growing in several large countries. In comparison, the 2009 H1N1 flu had a death toll of 18,500....