AP wire

US tops 500,000 virus deaths, matching the toll of 3 wars

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press
Feb 22, 2021
Feb 22, 2021 Updated Feb 22, 2021

1 of 20

States rush to catch up on delayed vaccines, expand access

People wait in line for the opening of a 24-hour, walk-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic hosted by the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium at Temple University's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

Matt Rourke

US tops 500,000 virus deaths, matching the toll of 3 wars

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2021, file photo, transporters Miguel Lopez, right, Noe Meza move a body of a COVID-19 patient to a morgue at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

Jae C. Hong

FILE - In this April 9, 2020, file photo, medical workers wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns move a body behind a fence at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

John Minchillo

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, ventilator tubes are attached to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

Jae C. Hong

FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2020, file photo, marks are seen on the face of registered nurse Shelly Girardin as she removes a protective mask after performing rounds in a COVID-19 unit at Scotland County Hospital in Memphis, Mo. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

Jeff Roberson

FILE - In this May 17, 2020, file photo, Mohammad Ayaz, cousin of Mohammad Altaf, center right, is hugged by a mourner after funeral prayers are given over Altaf's body at Al-Rayaan Muslim Funeral Services in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

John Minchillo

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 2020, file photo, registered nurse Keith Robinson, right, watches as fellow nurse Angela Coomds calls out a patient's name from a COVID-19 triage tent at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

Jae C. Hong

FILE - In this July 6, 2020, file photo, blanket is pulled to cover the body of a patient after medical personnel were unable to to save her life inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

David J. Phillip

FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2020, file phtoo, social distancing marker directs workers at Women & Infants Hospital arriving to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Providence, R.I. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

David Goldman

FILE - In this April 2, 2020, file photo, Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home, walks through his body holding facility in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

John Minchillo

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2021, file photo, Patty Trejo, 54, left, looks at her intubated husband, Joseph, in a COVID-19 unit as registered nurse Celina Mande holds a smartphone showing a mariachi band performing for the patient at St. Jude Medical Center, in Fullerton, Calif. Trejo visited her husband for the first time since he was hospitalized more than a month ago. A survivor of COVID-19 herself, she invited a mariachi band to give him courage. Surrounded by hospital staff, family members and friends in the parking lot of the hospital, the band played her husband's favorite song, "La mano de Dios," or "The Hand of God." "He needs to know that I still love him, and he needs to know he's got to fight," said Trejo.

Jae C. Hong

Vaccine efforts redoubled as US death toll draws near 500K

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2021, file photo, traffic cones line around the empty parking lot of Dodger Stadium, a mass COVID-19 vaccination in Los Angeles. California closed some vaccination centers and delayed appointments following winter storms elsewhere in the country that hampered the shipment of doses.

Damian Dovarganes

FILE - In this April 6, 2020, file photo, gravediggers lower the casket of someone who died of coronavirus at the Hebrew Free Burial Association's cemetery in the Staten Island borough of New York. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died.

David Goldman

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2021, file photo, Vera Eskridge, 86, right, is escorted into the waiting area by registered nurse Angelo Bautista after getting her COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site set up in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Mission in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

Jae C. Hong

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2021, file photo, a pharmacist prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccination site at NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan in New York. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

Mary Altaffer

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2021, file photo, people receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Las Vegas. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

John Locher

California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes questions from the media during a visit to a mobile vaccination site at Ramona Gardens Recreation Center in Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. California's new system of delivering and scheduling coronavirus vaccines is being rolled out in select counties. It's the first step in Newsom's plan to smooth out what has been a disjointed vaccine rollout hampered by limited national supply.

Damian Dovarganes

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, Dr. Ingrid Felix-Peralta, second from left, and her husband Dr. Victor Peralta, second from right, administer second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in New York. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

Seth Wenig

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2021, file photo, a LabCorp worker, second from right, greets a person, right, at an entrance to a COVID-19 vaccination site in Natick, Mass. States are working quickly get the coronavirus vaccine into people’s arms after last week’s icy storms, freezing temperatures and widespread power outages closed clinics and slowed vaccine deliveries nationwide.

Steven Senne

FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2020, file photo, Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg walks among thousands of white flags planted in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19 near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Firstenberg's temporary art installation, called "In America, How Could This Happen," will include an estimated 240,000 flags when completed.

Patrick Semansky

The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 Monday, a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.

President Joe Biden held a sunset moment of silence and a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House and ordered American flags lowered at federal buildings for the next five days.

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