Propelled in part by the wildly contagious omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000.

The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis or San Francisco, or Charlotte, North Carolina.

At the same time, omicron is loosening its grip on the United States. New cases have been plunging in recent weeks and the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 is turning downward.

New cases per day have decreased by almost a half-million nationwide since mid-January, the curve trending downward in every state but Maine. The number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen 15% over that period to about 124,000.

Overall, new cases in the U.S. have plummeted from a record-obliterating average of more than 800,000 a day in mid-January to about 357,000 a day.

The cumulative 900,000-death milestone comes more than 13 months into a vaccination drive that has been beset by misinformation and political and legal strife, though the shots have proved safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness and death.

“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 noted that most of the deaths happened 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.”

Just 64% of the population is fully vaccinated, or about 212 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite its wealth and its world-class medical institutions, the U.S. has the highest reported toll of any country.

COVID-19 has become one of the top three causes of death in America, behind the big two – heart disease and cancer.