CHICAGO (NYTIMES) - A nation numbed by misery and loss is confronting a number that still has the power to shock: 500,000.
Roughly one year since the first known death by the coronavirus in the United States, an unfathomable toll is nearing - the loss of a half-million people.
No other country has counted so many deaths in the pandemic. More Americans have perished from Covid-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.
The milestone comes at a hopeful moment: New virus cases are down sharply, deaths are slowing, and vaccines are steadily being administered.
Bob Manus, long-time Plano crossing guard, dies at 79 from COVID-19
Manus, 79, watched over the children of Brinker Elementary for 16 years.
A Plano water tower in Plano, Texas, on Thursday, June 18, 2020. (Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News)(Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer)
A Plano crossing guard beloved by parents, children and others in the city has died following a weeklong battle with COVID-19, according to published reports.
Bob Manus, who was also known as “Mr. Bob,” was a neighborhood fixture at the corner of Yeary Road and Clark Parkway for 16 years, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported.
“You don’t always realize the people who are in your life every day and do these things for your family. Sometimes you don’t recognize it until something like this happens,” Sarah Kissel, parent and PTA president, told NBC5.