20,000 flags placed on National Mall mark COVID-19 deaths

Twenty thousand flags were placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Monday in remembrance of the over 200,000 American lives lost due to complications related to COVID-19.

The memorial in front of the Washington Monument was installed by a group of friends in the District area who raised money in an online fundraiser to honor the lives lost from the pandemic, which surpassed 200,000 Tuesday, NBC News reported.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has recorded a total of 6.8 million cases and 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the past six months.

Around two dozen volunteers started planting the flags on Monday morning, and a similar number of bystanders joined to help the effort.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday spoke at the memorial in honor of the American lives lost to COVID-19.

Striking images on the National Mall this morning as @SpeakerPelosi joined the COVID Memorial Project Interfaith memorial service. 20,000 flags marking the 200,000 US deaths.

She said these flags give some perspective on the number of lives lost multiplied again and again. pic.twitter.com/qGcSlGm6JB

— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) September 22, 2020

“It’s just incomprehensible, the situation we find ourselves in,” Pelosi said, adding that the flags offer “some perspective on the number of lives that have been lost.”

Before her appearance at the memorial, she asked all chair and staff members in the House chamber to rise for a moment of silence in remembrance for those who died from the virus.