Trump orders flags lowered to half-staff for three days for those who died from COVID-19
President Trump has ordered flags be lowered to half-staff for the entirety of the Memorial Day weekend to honor not only military members who have made the ultimate sacrifice, but to those who have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.
"I will be lowering the flags on all Federal Buildings and National Monuments to half-staff over the next three days in memory of the Americans we have lost to the CoronaVirus....," the president tweeted Thursday.
More than 94,000 Americans have died due to COVID-19, according to recent data from Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 1,6 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Of that total, almost 300,000 patients have recovered.
Trump also tweeted that flags will be lowered Monday -- Memorial Day -- to honor the men and women who have died in military service.
The American flag flies at half-staff on federal buildings typically when the whole nation is in mourning. Typically, in observance of Memorial Day the flag is to fly at half-staff from sunrise until noon and then is raised to full height from noon until sunset.
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation standardizing the dates and times the flag is to be flown at half-staff on federal buildings -- 30 days for the death of a president or former president; 10 days for a vice president, chief justice or speaker of the House; and for other leaders in Congress or supreme court justices it is to be lowered from the day of death until the day of burial.
In 2019, the flag was lowered to half-staff for a total of 19 days -- in addition to days of remembrance the president honored the passing of two congressmen and an associate justice and recognized the victims of three mass shootings.
FOX News contributed to this report.
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