COVID-19 took one of its greatest casualties with the death of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell who according to his family died aged 84 of the pandemic complications.
Powell was a former top military officer who rose to become the first African-American secretary of state in 2001 under Republican George W Bush.
A statement from the family said: “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.
“We want to thank the medical staff… for their caring treatment,” it added.
The statement said that Powell had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Meanwhile Former US President George W Bush was among the first to pay tribute, saying Powell was “a family man and a friend” who “was such a favourite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice”.
Powell, a moderate Republican who broke with his party to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, became a trusted military adviser to a number of leading US politicians.
He served in the US Army and was wounded in Vietnam, an experience that later helped define his own military and political strategies.
Many would remember him for the role he played in garnering support for the Iraq war.
He admitted in a speech to the United Nations Security Council that using faulty intelligence was “a blot” on his record.
“It was painful. It’s painful now,” Mr Powell told ABC News in 2005.
