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Workers wear protective equipment at a COVID-19 testing site on Jan. 26, 2022, in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. (Photo by AP)

The United States has crossed yet another grim landmark in the battle against COVID-19, reporting a staggering death toll of more than 900,000, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.

The tragic toll, driven in part by the highly-contagious Omicron variant, comes more than 13 months into a vaccination drive that has been confounded by misinformation, political and legal strife, and vaccine hesitancy in segments of the population.

The US, the richest country in the world, has continuously recorded the highest death toll of any country throughout the pandemic. Public health experts say reaching the 1 million death mark is "inevitable."

"It’s absolutely staggering," said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked the number of COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic. "It’s unreal, frankly. And what makes it an even ... greater heartbreak - as if the loss of 900,000 souls weren’t enough of a heartbreak - is the fact that it’s probably an undercount of the number of people that we’ve lost."

Some health experts believe that the high death toll is a testament to the failure of the national vaccination drive.

"It is an astronomically high number. If you had told most Americans two years ago as this pandemic was getting going that 900,000 Americans would die over the next few years, I think most people would not have believed it," said Dr. Ashish K Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

He lamented that most of the lives were lost after the vaccine gained authorization.

"We got the medical science right. We failed on the social science. We failed on how to help people get vaccinated, to combat disinformation, to not politicize this," Jha said.

"Those are the places where we have failed as America," he said, adding that the US could reach 1 million deaths by April.

’It was not inevitable’

Other health experts say the United States could have done more to prevent such a high death toll.

"It was not inevitable. There are things that we could have done and should have done ... to protect those who were most vulnerable," said Lauren Ancel Meyers, professor and epidemiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. "It’s a very sad day."

President Joe Biden acknowledged the "emotional, physical and psychological weight of this pandemic" and urged Americans to get vaccinated.

"I urge all Americans: get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated, and get your booster shot if you are eligible," Biden said in a statement on Friday. "It’s free, easy, and effective - and it can save your life, and the lives of those you love."

Just 64 percent of the US population is fully vaccinated, or about 212 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The seven-day average for daily COVID-19 deaths has been above 2,000 since January 23, which is nearly three times higher than in November, the CDC reported.