Undertakers carry the body of a COVID victim on Staten Island, New York, in an April 6 photo.David Goldman / AP
The United States has exceeded 500,000 deaths from covid-19.
The president, Joe Biden, held a ceremony to commemorate the victims.
The president ordered the flags of federal government buildings to fly at half-staff for five days.
"More Americans have died in this pandemic than in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined," Biden said in a message Monday.
"To heal we must remember and we must do it together as a nation," Biden said from the White House.
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I promise you that a day will come when the memory of our deceased will stop provoking tears to provoke smiles.
My wish for all of us is that that day will come soon ”, he added.
Unlike his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, who often sought to downplay the disease, Biden has made fighting the pandemic his top priority.
The president warned that the death toll from covid-19 in the United States could go "well above" 600,000.
Despite the dramatic losses, the trend in the country, which announced its first death in February last year, is sharply downward.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal public health oversight agency, said deaths in the United States are at their lowest level since December, with a 39% drop in the last seven-day average of new daily cases.