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US President to hold candle lighting ceremony in memory of Covid-19 victims as toll nears 5 lakh

WION Web Team
Washington, US Updated: Feb 22, 2021, 07:13 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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According to the release, Biden will deliver remarks in the Cross Hall of the White House ahead of the candle lighting ceremony

US President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on Monday on the lives lost to the coronavirus pandemic and will hold a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at sundown together with the First Lady, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, the White House said. 

"... the President, the First Lady, the Vice President, and the Second Gentleman will hold a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at sundown in the South Portico," Biden's Monday daily guidance, released by the White House, says. 

According to the release, Biden will deliver remarks in the Cross Hall of the White House ahead of the candle lighting ceremony. 

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States has confirmed more than 28.1 million coronavirus cases, and the country's Covid-19 death toll stands at over 498,800.  

These are the highest figures of all the countries in the world. According to US media reports, the US coronavirus death toll is expected to surpass 500,000 on Monday. The United States faces this dark milestone this week despite a recent decline in Covid-19 cases.  

The number of Covid-19 cases fell for the fifth straight week and officials scrambled to inoculate the population. It has been nearly a year since the pandemic upended the country with dueling public health and economic crises. 

"It's nothing like we've ever been through in the last 102 years since the 1918 influenza pandemic... It really is a terrible situation that we've been through - and that we're still going through," Dr Anthony Fauci, White House Covid-19 medical adviser and the nation's top infectious disease official, told CNN's 'State of the Union' programme on Sunday.