Germany conducts memorial service for 80,000 people who died of COVID

Germany conducted a national memorial day to remember the nearly 80,000 people who lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday morning Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended a daily mass in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a Berlin event sent to peace and reconciliation.

"Sickness, dying, and death cannot be just driven away in this long year," said George Baetzing, director of the German Bishops' League, during the service. "They should cut very into the lives of many people."

The two leaders then visited a ceremony aired on public television in the Konzerthaus, a concert hall in prime Berlin. The number of guests was limited due to the crisis.

In his speech, Steinmeier told the public of the ongoing "human tragedy" behind the country's daily COVID-19 statistics.

"We, as a society," he said, "have not told us often enough that individual destinies, personal lives, are behind all of these numbers... a society that ignores this pain will suffer as a whole."

He also highlighted the problems of those Germans who had died alone, in hospitals, care homes and hospices, without standing ready to say goodbye to their loved ones due to coronavirus restrictions.

"Many characters have died without their families and fans being able to say goodbye to them," he said. "Some find their loss twice as hard to bear because they were refused the opportunity to see or feel the dying one last time."

He said that Germany's national day of celebration served to remind people that "they are not alone in their pain, not alone in mourning."