US President-elect Joe Biden led a national tribute Tuesday evening to the more than 400,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19.
The commemoration took place just after Biden arrived in Washington on the eve of his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States.
Biden, known as someone who is open about his emotions and personal tragedies, stressed the need to reunite the country after four turbulent years under his predecessor Donald Trump. It’s essential to do that as a country,” Biden told the Lincoln Memorial.
Usually, the US capital is busy on the eve of a presidential inauguration. Still, Biden, flanked by vice-president-to-be Kamala Harris, was almost alone in Washington’s empty National Mall corona restrictions and draconian security measures following the US’s violent storming. Capitol building by Trump supporters earlier this month.
200,000 flags have been planted on the lawn of the National Mall, representing the absent visitors.
The US has been hit hardest by the coronavirus of all countries globally, both in terms of a number of infections and in terms of the death toll. The lung virus has so far been diagnosed in more than 24.2 million people in the US. At least 401,362 people in the US have already died from the consequences of a corona infection.