capital was literally breathtaking, representing the more than 740,000 Americans killed by COVID-19, the highest official national death toll in the world.įLORIDA COVID CASES, DEATH RATE AMONG LOWEST IN THE COUNTRY The collective impact of white flags covering 20 acres on the National Mall in the U.S. Memorial flags, hearts, ribbons: These simple objects have stood in for virus victims, representing lost lives in eye-catching memorials from London to Washington D.C., and Brazil to South Africa. Everywhere, the task of creating collective memorials is fraught, with the pandemic far from vanquished and new dead still being mourned. Some have been drawn from artists’ ideas or civic group proposals, but others are spontaneous displays of grief and frustration. The Italian city that suffered the brunt of COVID-19’s first deadly wave is dedicating a vivid memorial to the pandemic dead: A grove of trees, creating oxygen in a park opposite the hospital where so many died, unable to breathe.īergamo, in northern Italy, is among the many communities around the globe dedicating memorials to commemorate lives lost in a pandemic that is nearing the terrible threshold of 5 million confirmed dead.
