The Week in Pictures: Hugging through plastic and crowds return to beaches

Olivia Grant, right, hugs her grandmother, Mary Grace Sileo, through a plastic barrier hung from a homemade clothes line during Memorial Day weekend on May 24, 2020 in Wantagh. This was the first time they had any contact since the lockdown.

The United States surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, according to NBC News' count, becoming the first country to reach the grim milestone.

Visitors crowd a boardwalk in Ocean City on Memorial Day weekend on May 23.

As states around the country ease up on coronavirus lockdowns, Memorial Day weekend festivities attracted large crowds with many people flocking to beaches, bars and other public spaces while forgoing rules on social distancing and wearing masks in public.

Photos: States reopen and celebrate Memorial Day amid coronavirus

Patrons watch The Greatest Showman at the Bel Aire diner parking lot in Queens on May 25.

The Bel Aire diner in Astoria has created a drive-in movie theater in the parking lot behind the restaurant with room for 45 socially distanced cars. Patrons pay $32 a vehicle and can order diner food to their car.

Boaters participate in a "Make America Great Again" parade in Charleston on May 24.

Maria Velez of Orlando, Fla., hugs the tombstone of her son Stephen at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Seville on May 25.

Police officer Derek Chauvin pins George Floyd's neck to the ground with his face against the pavement as Floyd repeatedly says, "I can't breathe," in Minneapolis on May 25. Chauvin does not move for at least eight minutes, even after Floyd stops speaking and moving.

Protesters and police during a rally for George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 26.

A protester is doused with milk after exposure to tear gas outside the 3rd precinct station during demonstrations in Minneapolis on May 27.

The mayor of Minneapolis asked the Minnesota National Guard to move in after protests in the city over the death of George Floyd in the custody of police escalated Wednesday night with a fatal shooting near the site of the demonstrations, widespread looting, fires and the deployment of tear gas.

Protesters outside a burning fast food restaurant in Minneapolis early May 29 as protests over the death of George Floyd raged for a third straight day.

Photos: Fire and fury in Minneapolis

Relatives mourn as they watch cemetery workers shovel earth over the coffin of Iziquiel Sampaio de Souza, who died of COVID-19, at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo on May 28.

With more than 22,000 deaths and 347,000 cases, Brazil ranks second in the world after the United States, according to an NBC News tally.

Sarah Hydes, an embalmer with Guardian Funerals, prepares a body in Shipley on May 21. The person did not die of the coronavirus, but funeral home workers are taking extra precautions during the pandemic.

An image of veteran Harry Malandrinos is projected onto the home of his son, Paul Malandrinos, as he looks out a window with his wife, Cheryl, in Wilbraham on May 16.

Malandrinos, a U.S. Navy veteran and resident of the Soldier's Home in Holyoke, Mass., died from COVID-19 at age 89.

Visitors crowd the beach at Bournemouth on May 25 as the government started easing lockdown measures.

Cloud iridescence, an optical phenomenon where light is diffracted through water droplets, is seen at the edge of clouds before a summer thunderstorm over Bangkok on May 28.

Volunteers look for survivors of a plane crash in a residential area of Karachi on May 22.

The passenger plane carrying dozens of people crashed minutes before it was due to land.

Bystanders watch from footbridges as riot police stand guard outside a building in Hong Kong on May 27 as the city's legislature debated over a law that bans insulting China's national anthem.

China's government passed the first hurdle of enacting a draft security law for Hong Kong on Thursday, legislation that critics warn would erode human rights protections and the territory's unique status.

People wearing face masks walk at the Griffith Observatory with a view of the Hollywood sign at the start of Memorial Day holiday weekend in Los Angeles on May 22.

A woman watches a dolphin swim at the Aquarium of Genoa on May 22 as the country eases its lockdown measures.

Last week's gallery: Tentative reopenings and a world behind masks