ATLANTA — America is marking a grim milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic: 500,000 people dead from the virus.

It’s hard to imagine that size, but compared to city population, it’s nearly the size of Atlanta.

According to the 2019 census, there are more than 506,000 people living within the city limits of Atlanta.

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President Joe Biden will mark the U.S. crossing 500,000 lives lost from COVID-19 with a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at the White House.

We’ll have live coverage of the moment of silence on Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m.

The global death toll was approaching 2.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins.

Next week will mark one year since the coronavirus was confirmed in Georgia. On March 2, 2020, Gov. Brian Kemp announced that there were two cases in Fulton County.

More than 800,000 people in Georgia have contracted the virus since then, and at least 14,600 people have died.

Since the rollout of the vaccine in Georgia, more than 1.75 million doses have been administered, Kemp said.

[QUICK LINKS: Here’s where you can get COVID-19 vaccines around metro Atlanta]

Vaccines are currently open to people eligible in Phase 1A, which includes people over 65 and their caregivers, health care workers, law enforcement and EMS personnel and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.

Cox Media Group