As part of pared-down inaugural activities, President-elect Joe Biden’s inaugural committee announced Thursday that it will host a lighting ceremony next month to honor lives lost to COVID-19.

The memorial will take place on January 19, the day before the inauguration, at 5:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Presidential Inaugural Committee is also inviting towns and cities nationwide to illuminate buildings and ring church bells at the same time in a “national moment of unity and remembrance.”

“The inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris represents the beginning of a new national journey,” PIC communications director Pili Tobar said in a press release. “However, in the midst of a pandemic — when so many Americans are grieving the loss of family, friends, and neighbors — it is important that we honor those who have died, reflect on what has been one of the more challenging periods in the nation’s history, and renew our commitment to coming together to end the pandemic and rebuild our nation.”

A spokesperson for the PIC declined to share more specifics with DCist/WAMU, including whether any D.C. institutions would be participating in the bell-ringing.

The announcement comes after the inaugural committee urged Americans earlier this month not to travel to D.C. for the ceremony, and participate from home instead.

“Our goal is to create an inauguration that keeps people safe, honors the grand traditions of the Presidency, and showcases the Biden-Harris Administration’s renewed American vision for an inclusive, equitable, and unified citizenry,” the PIC’s CEO, Tony Allen, said in a press release at the time.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office at the U.S. Capitol in a ceremony that will feature rigorous health and safety protocols, per the PIC, and an “extremely limited” footprint. The parade after the ceremony will also be “reimagined.”

The committee said earlier this month that it has hired a team of production experts to craft a “new and innovative” program with ways for people to safely participate, as well as staff dedicated to health and safety measures.

Typically, the city would be preparing for an event that can bring as many as two million people to D.C., but since the election Biden’s team has been signaling that his inauguration would be smaller.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said during an appearance on The Politics Hour this month that she didn’t know exactly what activities are in store for the inauguration, but voiced doubt that circumstances regarding the ongoing health crisis would be different by that time.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson also said during a recent council breakfast that he  shared his opposition with Bowser’s office to having the traditional viewing stand in front of the Wilson Building in January

“In this year of social distancing, and with the pandemic numbers looking worse, do we really want a confined space in front of the Wilson Building — where, if I remember correctly, no members showed up last time?” the chairman said, according to The Washington Post. In 2016, just three members of the council attended President Trump’s inauguration.

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is also currently serving as an emergency COVID-19 field hospital, and will not be hosting any inaugural balls. More details about the memorial and other inaugural activities will be announced in “the coming days,” the PIC said Thursday.