Assumption Church in Syracuse tolls its bells to honor lives lost to COVID-19

SYRACUSE, .N.Y. — The Assumption Church in Syracuse honored the lives lost to COVID-19 on Tuesday evening by tolling its bells in memory of the deceased.

The memorial was held at the same time that President-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harrisalso participated in a memorial in Washington, D.C. for COVID-19 victims.

The nation surpassed 400,000 lives lost to COVID-19 on Tuesday afternoon. The 400,000-death toll, reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of New Orleans, Cleveland or Tampa, Florida. It's nearly equal to the number of American lives lost annually to strokes, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia combined.

Central New York has lost 1,157 neighbors to COVID-19 since the pandemic began -- 563 in Onondaga County, 298 in Oneida County, 78 in Madison County, 70 in Cayuga County, 69 in Oswego County, 58 in Cortland County, and 21 in Tompkins County.

With more than 4,000 deaths recorded on some recent days — the most since the pandemic began — the toll by week's end will probably surpass the number of Americans killed in World War II, according to the Associated Press.