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Posted: 2021-01-16T09:47:30Z | Updated: 2021-01-18T20:06:09Z

CNN s Brianna Keilar came close to tears on Friday while reading a series of final text messages between COVID-19 victims and their families.

The Newsroom host admitted it was hard to grasp the enormity of the coronavirus pandemic that has now ravaged the U.S. for 10 months and killed almost 390,000 people nationwide.

And the last two weeks of the crisis have been the deadliest of them all in the U.S., the news anchor noted, with more than 42,000 lives lost.

Each one of these numbers is a story, it is a loved one, it is someones father, someones mother, someones daughter, someones son, someones brother, someones sister, someones friend, said Keilar.

She then shared just some of the poignant exchanges that have been documented in a powerful piece produced by journalist Katie Sanders and photographer Celeste Sloman for National Geographic.

Watch the video below and read the National Geographic piece here .

\"'We love you and we are with you. Mom is very worried, so keep fighting through this' ... That text went unanswered.\"@brikeilarcnn grows emotional sharing texts of Covid-19 victims.

\"Several days later another: 'We are loving you.' That was a text one day before she died.\" pic.twitter.com/lPHr492DVI

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"'We love you and we are with you. Mom is very worried, so keep fighting through this' ... That text went unanswered."@brikeilarcnn grows emotional sharing texts of Covid-19 victims.

"Several days later another: 'We are loving you.' That was a text one day before she died." pic.twitter.com/lPHr492DVI

CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) January 15, 2021