U.S. crosses 500,000th COVID death

Samantha Emanuel reacts while viewing the body of her father, Samuel Emanuel Jr., 55, who died from complications from COVID-19, during a private viewing held for the family at Pryority Funeral Experience, in Houston, Texas, February 11, 2021....more

Lawrence Ginsberg, a coronavirus-positive patient, is treated by critical care workers before being transferred out of the intensive care unit after spending nearly a month in the COVID pod, at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida,...more

Antonio Cervantes brings Valentine's Day gifts to the grave of his wife Gabriela, who died of COVID, at a cemetery in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Tanna Ingraham places the body of a patient who died due to the coronavirus inside a body bag, at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, December 30, 2020.  REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

A worker and an empty hospital bed are seen outside a 50-bed field hospital for COVID-19 patients under construction at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California, December 27, 2020.  REUTERS/Bing Guan

Fiana Tulip poses for a portrait with a photo of her mom, who died of COVID-19 in July, on her phone in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, February 10, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

A coyote walks past graveside mourners at Rose Hill Memorial Park and Mortuary, the biggest cemetery in North America, as it struggles under a backlog of coronavirus-related burials, with the usual 5-7 day wait period after death now stretched to...more

Lila Blanks is comforted by her friend Nikki Wyatt, her son Brandon Danas, 17, and her daughter Bryanna Danas, 14, as she reacts by the casket of her husband, Gregory Blanks, 50, who died from COVID complications, ahead of his funeral in San Felipe,...more

Helen Tyler wears a mask at the funeral of her nephew Gregory Blanks, 50, who died of the coronavirus, in San Felipe, Texas, January 26, 2021.  REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Florence Bolton, 86, a coronavirus-positive patient, lies in her intensive care bed as family members attempt to FaceTime her at Roseland Community Hospital on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The open casket for Florence Bolton, who died of COVID on November 2 at Roseland Community Hospital, stands for viewing at  Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, December 9, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

A deceased person lies on a gurney at an L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner (DEMC) secondary temporary refrigerated storage facility for coronavirus decedents in Los Angeles, California, January 27, 2021. County of Los Angeles/Handout via REUTERS

Mariachi musicians play during the funeral of Rudy Cruz Sr., who died of COVID-19, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in El Paso, Texas, November 25, 2020. REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Bridgette Emanuel and Samantha Emanuel offer words of comfort to Jasiah Beckles, 9, as he views the body of his grandfather, Samuel Emanuel Jr., who died from complications from COVID-19, during a private viewing held for the family at Pryority...more

A healthcare worker checks on patients inside an oxygen tent outside the emergency room at the Community Hospital of Huntington Park in Huntington Park, California, December 29, 2020.  REUTERS/Bing Guan

Healthcare workers treat patients infected with the coronavirus at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, December 28, 2020.  REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

A woman lifts a funeral display into a car in the flower district as the coronavirus outbreak continues, ahead of Valentine's Day in Los Angeles, California, February 4, 2021. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office staff roll bodies that are in bags labeled "Covid" from refrigerated trailers into the morgue office in El Paso, Texas, November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Evelia De La Cruz, a hospital housekeeper at Roseland Community Hospital, disinfects the room where a coronavirus-positive patient died in the intensive care unit on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Nurse Carolina Garcia, 36, takes care of her father, Jose Garcia, 67, who is currently intubated and sedated due to COVID-19, at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, November 29, 2020. REUTERS/Paul Ratje

Family members and loved ones of Jose Garcia, who died from COVID-19, cry as he is laid to rest at the San Jose Cemetery in La Mesa, New Mexico, December 22, 2020. Justin Hamel/Handout via REUTERS

Healthcare workers treat patients infected with COVID at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, December 31, 2020.  REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Gabriel Cervera calls the family of a patient who died, as healthcare personnel work inside a coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, December 12, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Critical care workers insert an endotracheal tube into a COVID patient in the intensive care unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, February 11, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Dr. Eileen Sprys, front, and registered nurse Mary Bond, hug each other at Medical Arts Hospital in Lamesa, Texas, December 17, 2020. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

People wearing protective masks hold signs during a mock funeral for Governor Andrew Cuomo's "leadership and integrity" outside the Cobble Hill Health Center in Brooklyn, New York, October 18, 2020. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Teresa Nguyen, a respiratory therapist, treats a patient inside a room for people with the coronavirus at a hospital in Hutchinson, Kansas, November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Dr. Joseph Varon, 58, the chief medical officer at United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC), hugs Christina Mathers, 43, a nurse from his team who became infected with COVID-19, at UMMC in Houston, Texas, July 25, 2020. Mathers was told she tested...more

Hospital workers in protective equipment are seen behind a fence as they move the body of a deceased person to a temporary morgue outside Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York, April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Bodies are buried in a potter's field on New York's Hart Island in New York City, April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Jessica Holguin, 25, (L) comforts her younger sister Natalie Holguin (R) at the viewing service of their father Jose Holguin, 50, originally from the Dominican Republic and who died of complications related to the coronavirus, at International...more

While FaceTiming her siblings, Angelica Mendez, 48, says goodbye to her mother, Catalina Salazar, 86, who was struggling to fight COVID-19 and who died later in the day, at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, September 8, 2020.  ...more

The USNS Comfort passes the Statue of Liberty as it enters New York Harbor in New York City, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

A man who died from COVID-19 is wrapped in a body bag at the United Memorial Medical Center's coronavirus intensive care unit in Houston, Texas, June 29, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Nurses Sasha Dubois and Farah Fevrin kneel for the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence during a vigil at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where many coronavirus patients have been treated, against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd,...more

Signs made by prisoners pleading for help are seen on a window of Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, April 7, 2020. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska

Manager Alisha Narvaez, 36, and resident funeral director Nicole Warring, 33, of International Funeral & Cremation Services, carry a deceased person into the basement area, where bodies are stored and prepared for funeral services, in Harlem,...more

Funeral director Omar Rodriguez looks over caskets of bodies at the Gerard J. Neufeld funeral home in Queens, New York, April 26, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan R Smith

An El Paso County Sheriff's Officer tries to block photographs from being taken as bodies are moved to refrigerated trailers, deployed during a surge of coronavirus deaths, outside the County of El Paso Medical Examiner's Office in El Paso, Texas,...more

Aracely Iraheta touches the casket of her husband, Jose Agustin Iraheta, who died from COVID-19, in Malden, Massachusetts, May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Healthcare workers transfer the body of a deceased person onto a stretcher at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, April 8, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Debbie de los Angeles, holds a photograph of her mother Twilla Morin who died from COVID-19 at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, while posing for a portrait at her home in Monroe, Washington, March 23, 2020.   REUTERS/Brian Snyder

REACT EMS paramedics wearing protective gear load a potential coronavirus patient for transport in Shawnee, Oklahoma, April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

Refrigerated tractor trailers used to store bodies of deceased people are seen at a temporary morgue, with the Statue of Liberty seen in the background, in Brooklyn, New York City, May 13, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

A Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar honoring 1,308 UFCW Local 770 grocery, drug store, and food processing essential union workers who have died from COVID-19 is seen in Los Angeles, California, October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Mourners wear masks at a viewing for Shirley Sellers who died at age 79 of complications from COVID-19 in Alexandria, Virginia, May 14, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

An ambulance drives across a nearly empty East 42nd Street in heavy rain and high winds in Manhattan in New York City, New York, April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Demonstrators against President Donald Trump protest for him to resign, during a march to honor people who have died during the coronavirus outbreak, in Manhattan, New York, August 21, 2020. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

A cross and flowers are seen inside a car as coronavirus cases surge across the United States in Washington, November 16, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A general view of the Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

A nurse wipes away tears as she stands outside NYU Langone Medical Center on 1st Avenue in Manhattan as New York Police Department (NYPD) Mounted Police and other units came to cheer and thank healthcare workers at 7 p.m. in New York City, New York,...more

Walter Campos and Lyn Wolf hug as family and friends attend a funeral for David Gutierrez who died of COVID-19 in Houston, Texas, August 26, 2020.  REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Healthcare personnel prepare to discharge a patient who had been quarantining after a possible exposure to the coronavirus at a hospital in Lakin, Kansas, November 19, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Emergency nurse Britta Brennan and Arvind Suguness, MD, Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care, pose for a portrait in Washington, April 24, 2020. Britta Brennan: "The strangest thing about the practice of medicine in a pandemic is how the disease robs...more

Gavin Roberts wears his father's police hat as he looks at the flag-draped casket of his father, Glen Ridge Police Department officer Charles Roberts, at his funeral service, after the 45-year-old father of three died of the coronavirus in Glen...more

Healthcare workers walk through the Texas Medical Center during a shift change in Houston, Texas, July 8, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Co-director of the intensive care unit at CommonSpirit's Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Zafia Anklesaria, 35, who is seven months pregnant, removes a tracheostomy tube from COVID-19 patient Vicente Arredondo, 65, in the...more

First responders evacuate sick crew members with flu-like symptoms from two cruise ships, the Costa Favolosa and Costa Magica, at U.S. Coast Guard station at Port of Miami in Florida, March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Michael Neel, funeral director of of All Veterans Funeral and Cremation, wearing full PPE, looks at the U.S. flag on the casket of George Trefren, a 90-year-old Korean War veteran who died of the coronavirus in a nursing home, in Denver, Colorado,...more

A New York City Police Department officer stands by as workers secure a van full of bodies of deceased people at the Andrew Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn, New York, April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

A woman covers boxes containing human remains before a prayer service at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, held to bless the ashes of Mexicans who have died during the outbreak but could not have a funeral Mass or burial, in Manhattan, New York City, July...more

Pictures of Metro Detroit residents, who died from COVID-19, line the street during a drive-through memorial on Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan, September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

A healthcare worker sits on a bench near Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon