Over 15,000 flags in Austin yard for every Texan life lost to COVID-19

AUSTIN, Texas - An artist has planted over 15,000 flags in his yard as a tribute for every Texan life lost to COVID-19. The North Austin artist is showcasing the deadly impact COVID-19 is having on the State of Texas by placing one flag for every Texan killed from the virus.

Shane Reilly started the display back in May, when the state’s death toll was under 1,000. Each flag represents one death from COVID-19 in Texas. “I started this around four months ago, we were at just under 1000. In four months’ time, we've gone eight folds over that,” said Shane Reilly.

Reilly told the New York Times that he started paying close attention to the coronavirus pandemic early on, as his son is immunocompromised.

“We live on a corner, so I see people walking by every day and I would notice that they just weren’t wearing masks, and I thought, something’s not hitting home with them. These are real people dying, real Texans dying, and I’ve got a kid in quarantine here at home and people are acting like this is almost a vacation,” he said. “So I thought, what could I put out there that would wake people up and make them say, ‘Oh, this is real, this is something we should pay attention to’?”

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Texas recorded 15,229 deaths from COVID-19 as of September 23, as the US passed 201,000 deaths in total.

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Storyful contributed to this article