President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a candle lighting ceremony and a moment of silence at the White House on Monday at sundown as the U.S. approaches a grim milestone of half a million deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the White House schedule, Biden will first give a speech at the Cross Hall before holding the ceremony in the South Portico.
As of Monday morning, Johns Hopkins University reports that 498,901 Americans have died from the virus.
The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. has now surpassed the number of Americans who died in combat during the two World Wars and the Vietnam War combined, per Yahoo News and the New York Times.
The staggering figure shows that country has by far the highest reported COVID-19 death toll in the world. Brazil comes next at 246,504, according to Johns Hopkins.
