US: Joe Biden orders flags at half mast as COVID-19 death toll surpasses 500,000

US President Joe Biden on Monday, February 22, commemorated the close to 500,000 American lives lost due to the novel COVID-19. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the President will order flags on federal property to be lowered at half staff for five days to mark the solemn milestone. During the event, Biden stepped to a lectern in the White House Cross Hall and delivered an emotion-filled eulogy for all the people who lost their lives due to the deadly coronavirus. 

He said, “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There’s no such thing. There’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary”. He further added, “Just like that. So many of them took their last breath alone”. Addressing the “grim, heartbreaking milestone”, Biden said, “I know all too well. I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens. I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. That black hole in your chest, you feel like you’re being sucked into it”.

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Flags to be lowered 

He ordered the flags on federal property to be lowered to half staff for five days and then he continued with the communal mourning of the people who died. After he spoke, the President along with First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff stood outside the White House for a moment of silence at sundown. There were 500 lit candles, each for 1,000 people lost. 

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Giving hope to the families of the deceased, Biden said, that they will "heal", adding that the "nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again". He further said, “While we've been fighting this pandemic for so long, we have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic, or a blur, or on the news”.

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(Image Credits: AP)