Biden to order flags at half-staff to mark 1 million COVID deaths

President Biden will order flags at half-staff Thursday to commemorate the deaths of 1 million Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19. 

Biden released a statement Thursday morning honoring those who have died in the U.S. over the last two years of the pandemic. He is also set to address a global COVID-19 summit later in the day in a pre-recorded statement.

Various COVID-19 trackers have different totals for the number of Americans who have died from the coronavirus. 

NBC News has compiled data showing more than 1 million Americans have already been lost to COVID-19, while Johns Hopkins University’s tracker has the number at slightly above 998,000.

While the U.S. hovers around the 1 million deaths mark, cases are beginning to rise again across the U.S., though experts are not panicking due to the nature of the omicron subvariant known as BA.2 and widespread immunity provided by vaccines and antibodies.

Though public health officials say the pandemic is not over, the U.S. is among many countries learning to live with the virus, with all states dropping their COVID-19 mask mandates and social distancing requirements.