The bells of the national cathedral of the American capital sounded a thousand times mourning yesterday Monday in honor of the victims of COVID, as the USA is going to overcome, if not already exceeded, the tragic milestone of one million deaths due to the pandemic.
The United States is the country that officially counts the most dead on the planet due to the health crisis caused by the new coronavirus, ahead of Brazil, India and Russia. More than 995,000 deaths were reported Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. US media reported last week that the milestone was going to be surpassed or has already been surpassed.
The bell of the cathedral started ringing around 18:00 (Washington time; 01:00 Greek time). Each stroke represented 1,000 human lives lost due to the pandemic.
The mournful sound of the bell was also heard when the US surpassed previous tragic milestones, for example in September 2020, when the country was now mourning 200,000 dead.
“Today our nation has gone through a tragic milestone: one million Americans have died because of COVID-19,” said Cathedral Elder Randolph Marshall Hollerith before the bells rang.
The United States has seen a rise in daily cases and hospital admissions for several weeks now, following the lifting of the obligation to use masks, something that is now simply recommended indoors for most.
The death toll from the pandemic has slowed in recent months. The limit of 900,000 deaths was exceeded in February, three months ago. That of 800,000 in December, a month and a half earlier.
When the milestone of half a million dead was exceeded in February 2021, US President Joe Biden had spoken of a heavier account than those of “World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.”
In all, the new coronavirus pandemic claimed the lives of 13-17 million people worldwide between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, according to estimates recently released by the World Health Organization.
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