WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2021) US President Joe Biden paid tribute to more than 500,000 Americans killed by the coronavirus pandemic by observing a moment of silence in front of the White House and urging fellow countrymen to remember and act.
Accompanied by his wife Jill, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff, Biden held the vigil at the South Portico of the presidential residence on Monday, where 500 candles were lit - one to mark every thousand of victims.
"We ask you to join us, to remember so we can heal, to find purpose in the work ahead, to show that there is light in the darkness. This nation will smile again, this nation will know sunny days again, this nation will know joy again. And as we do, we will remember each person we have lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind," he said prior to the solemn ceremony. "We will get through this, I promise you. But my heart aches for those of you who is going through it right now. May God bless you all, particularly those who have lost someone."
He also asked the Americans to act, remaining vigilant, staying socially distanced, masking up, getting vaccinated and putting aside political differences.
"We have to fight this together as one people, as the United States of America," Biden said.
Earlier he ordered all flags on Federal properties, including the White House, the Capitol, US diplomatic missions and military bases abroad, be lowered to half-staff for five days. On Monday, the death toll in United States topped half a million, surpassing the number of Americans killed during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.
Russia's Embassy in Washington, DC, also lowered the national flag in solidarity with the American people.
