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Monday, February 22
11:26 a.m.: US on the brink of half a million COVID-19 deaths
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has almost topped 500,000 — a number so staggering, that a top health researcher said it’s hard to imagine an American who hasn’t lost a relative or doesn’t know someone who died.
According to the Associated Press, the virus has reached into all corners of the country and communities of every size. At the same time, many families are left to cope in isolation, unable to hold funerals.
For Anthony Hernandez, whose Emmerson-Bartlett Memorial Chapel is in Redlands, the pandemic has been overwhelming. Handling the burial of COVID-19 victims while handling some of the most challenging conversations while trying to comfort mothers, fathers, and children who lost loved ones has been difficult.
Normally, his chapel arranges 25…
