This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (Courtesy Alissa Eckert, MSMI / Dan Higgins, MAMS via CDC 2019)

Nurses with National Nurses United will hold a vigil Wednesday evening at the Oakland Coliseum to honor their own who died of COVID-19.

The vigil will start at 6 p.m. in Lot C and will be part of a nationwide remembrance. Other vigils will be held at the same time in eight other U.S. cities.

In Washington, D.C., at 9 p.m. Eastern time, the names of the nurses will be projected onto the AFL-CIO building. The vigils come at the end of National Nurses Week and on International Nurses Day 2021.

Nurses will sit in cars and listen to remarks while holding battery-powered candles.

National Nurses United, the country’s largest nurse’s union, said more than 400 nurses nationwide died from the coronavirus. They blame employers and the government for not providing optimal personal protective equipment and for failing to follow “proper infection control practices.”

Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.