PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris paid tribute to those who have died of Covid-19 in a lit-up ceremony at the National Mall reflecting pool on Tuesday, as the US surpassed 400,000 deaths.
Biden and Harris prayed for the deceased in their first appearance together in Washington, DC, on the day before their inauguration.
“To heal we must remember,” Biden said in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, which was illuminated with 400 lights to commemorate the victims.
“It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation. That’s why we’re here today,” Biden continued.
“Between sundown and dusk let us shine the lights in the darkness, along the sacred pool of reflection and remember all we lost.”
The US has passed a grim milestone of more than 400,000 Covid deaths – around the same number as died in World War II.
It comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the military will help the vaccine rollout across the country in the ongoing fight against coronavirus.
Biden and Harris, who will be sworn into office on Wednesday, face the tall task of leading the country through vaccine distribution, which has gone slower than expected, as infection rates continue to surge.
Speaking before Biden, Harris seemed to criticize President Donald Trump’s coronavirus approach in saying, “for many months, we have grieved by ourselves.”
‘Tonight we grieve and begin healing,” she said.
“Tonight though we may be physically separated, we, the American people, are united in spirit.”
The incoming vice president brought up “a grandmother or grandfather who was our whole world, a parent, partner, sibling or friend who we still cannot accept is no longer here.”
Lori Marie Key, a Michigan nurse sang “Amazing Grace” for her coronavirus patients, and gospel singer Yolanda Adams performed “Hallelujah.”
Biden was accompanied by soon-to-be First Lady Jill Biden and Harris stood with Second Gentleman-in-waiting Doug Emhoff.
Chilling figures show around 3,400 Americans are dying every day.
Data shows that 410,096 have died from the bug.
A total of 24,726,302 cases have now been recorded across the country.
The US makes up four percent of the world’s population but around 20 percent of its Covid deaths.
The harrowing figures come a year after the disease began circulating on Jan. 18 after being imported from China.
On Tuesday, Biden’s new CDC director announced the incoming administration’s plans to bring in the military to speed up the jab rollout
Speaking on Good Morning America, Dr Rochelle Wallensky said the organization will also commission medical personnel and retirees as well as nursing students to ensure there are enough people to vaccinate the population.
The first case was announced on January 21 – that of a 35-year-old man who had recently returned to Washington state from Wuhan, China.
At that point very little was known about the virus though China was putting the Covid epicenter city of Wuhan into what would be a 76 day lockdown.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the then-obscure head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sought to assure Americans “their risk is low” as Donald Trump thanked the Chinese for their cooperation.
Trump announced a White House coronavirus task force on Jan. 29 and two days later, a ban on entry for foreign nationals who had traveled to China within the past 14 day.
The first official coronavirus death, a patient near Seattle was announced on Feb. 29.
According to The Covid-19 Tracking Project, an average of 3,299 Americans have succumbed to the virus each day over the past week.
That’s more than the number of US citizens killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.
