CNN host cries as she reports 500k US deaths from Covid

CNN host Brianna Keilar wiped away tears after a harrowing segment remembering some of the 500,000 people in the US who have now died of Covid-19.

The anchor of Newsroom was deeply moved by emotional clips of family members describing their loved ones’ last moments. 

Ms Keilar began: “Even as a nation where many have become numb to this astronomical loss, I know that these stories of our fellow Americans puncture that armour that it is natural to have accumulated over the past year, and that’s OK.”

Pausing to wipe away tears, she continued: “We need to remember the people we have lost, even if we didn’t know them personally.”

Acknowledging how hard the coronavirus pandemic has been on people, Ms Keilar said she had heard from many people how tired and “tapped out” they are a year into the pandemic.

She listed the struggles many are experiencing: “The quarantining, the hoping that this would subside only to realise that it wouldn’t any time soon, the struggling to make ends meet, the worrying that if this is the day you might spike a fever or start to cough, the juggling your job while you’re homeschooling your kids, being afraid to see your grandparents, being afraid to see your grandkids, knowing that there is a vaccine that you and your loved ones can’t yet get, struggling with mental health.”

She added: “And for almost 500,000 Americans this past year, losing their lives.”

Ms Keilar reminded viewers: “This is a collective loss. We’re taking this moment to acknowledge that. You are not alone. And if you are lucky enough to still have a little fuel in your tank today, it is a good day to remind someone in your life that you are there for them.”

The US reached the grim milestone of half a million deaths from the Covid-19 virus almost exactly a year since the first death of an American was announced. It would later be discovered that there were earlier coronavirus fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national ensemble four-week forecast, last updated on 15 February, estimates the total number of Covid-19 deaths will be between 530,000 and 559,000 by the week ending 13 March.

Figures from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine put the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US at 28.2 million.

Globally there have been 111.8 million confirmed cases and 2.48 million officially recorded deaths.