To honor those who died in the fight against COVID-19, the State Council issued a notice on April 3 that April 4, today, is National Mourning Day.

Flags are flying at half-mast, and public recreational activities were suspended.

At 10 a.m., people across the country observed three minutes of silence, while cars, trains, ships, and air raid sirens sounded their horns.

As a sign of respect, central and local government portals turned into black and white to mourn COVID-19 victims, including the websites of the National People's Congress, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Education.

On this special Tomb Sweeping Day, Xinhua, CCTV, CGTN, People's Daily, China Daily, The Paper, China Economic Net and many other Chinese news portals joined this initiative and also changed the color of their homepages to a solemn black and white color. 

Business portals like Sina, NetEase, Tencent, Sohu, and Phoenix also participated in this thoughtful gesture, joining many other across the country that are in their own way expressing grief.