The District passed a somber milestone on Thursday: more than 500 residents dead from COVID-19.

About three months in, the virus is showing signs of slowing but is far from halting altogether. There are positive signs. Testing capacity is increasing, hospital systems appear to be prepared to handle future surges, and the number of new cases and the positivity rate (the number of people who test positive out of the total number tested) are trending down. But the District is still tallying double-digit caseloads and losing multiple residents each day to the virus.

Among the 502 deaths in D.C. is Alyce Gullattee, a longtime psychiatrist at Howard University and a nationally renowned expert on substance abuse. A freelance photographer, Theodore Gaffney, who photographed the 1960 Freedom Riders for Jet magazine. George Valentine, the deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel and a former D.C. attorney general. Carla Thompson, a patient at St. Elizabeths Hospital remembered as a “gem” by an employee at the D.C. Public Defender Service who knew her. And Gerald Slater, a former PBS executive responsible for airing the Senate Watergate hearings on National television.

After months of shutdowns to enforce social distancing and flatten the curve of the virus, D.C. began easing restrictions almost two weeks ago, just as demonstrators began gathering en mass to protest police brutality and racial injustice. The impacts of more than a dozen consecutive days of demonstrations so far, and from people circulating more due to relaxed restrictions and quarantine fatigue, won’t be visible in the data right away. Symptoms typically develop two to 11 days after exposure.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has urged protesters to get tested, and tests are now available at 13 walk-up testing sites to anyone who needs one. There are also a number of private and insurance-provided testing sites, plus drive-up options from the city.

The city has also surpassed 9,500 cases.

But the impacts of the pandemic have not been felt equally. There’s a significant racial disparity: 74% those who died from the coronavirus are black, though black residents only make up about 46% of the District’s population. In comparison, white residents make up 11% of deaths and about 45% of the population. Latinx people, about 11% of the population, continue to see the highest infection rates at 28%, and make up 13% of the deaths.

Another group that’s been especially hard-hit are the unhoused: 3.4% of D.C.’s coronavirus fatalities have been people experiencing homelessness, though these residents make up only 1% of the population. Advocates and clients have expressed concern about the virus spreading in the city’s homeless shelters.

Ward 8 has seen the highest death toll, with 101 residents lost, while Ward 4 has the most cases. By neighborhood, Columbia Heights and 16th Street Heights continue to have the highest number of cases, 617 and 556, respectively.

Meanwhile, the city is still looking toward reopening. Officials have said D.C. could enter Phase Two as early as June 19. In May, the mayor said reopening will proceed across four stages that could span years, and will reopen in full only after a vaccine or other cure is widely available. Still, as of April, the city’s models suggested the District could see more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 before the pandemic subsides, and that the virus’ peak could come in late June or early July.

For loved ones of the 502 who have died of COVID-19, like Pastor Wilbert Miller, the District residents who have died aren’t just numbers. He’s one of many who’s shared memories of a COVID-19 victim with the Washington Post.

“She was a strong, wonderful, feisty woman who was like a grandmother or aunt to many people there,” he says of his former congregant at Augustana Lutheran Church, Ruth Hunter, who died of COVID-19 in April.

This post has been updated to include information about the city’s COVID-19 modeling.