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 The respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus has been
particularly dangerous for the elderly, although other adults and
children are also among the 501,000 fatalities and 10.1 million
reported cases.
While the overall rate of death has flattened in recent weeks,
health experts have expressed concerns about record numbers of new
cases in countries like the United States, India and Brazil, as well
as new outbreaks in parts of Asia.
More than 4,700 people are dying every 24 hours from COVID-19-linked
illness, according to Reuters calculations based on an average from
June 1 to 27.
That equates to 196 people per hour, or one person every 18 seconds.
(To see a Reuters interactive, open this link in an external
browser: https://tmsnrt.rs/2VqS5PS)
About one-quarter of all the deaths so far have been in the United
States, the Reuters data shows. The recent surge in cases has been
most pronounced in a handful of Southern and Western states that
reopened earlier and more aggressively. U.S. officials on Sunday
reported around 44,700 new cases and 508 additional deaths.
Case numbers are also growing swiftly in Latin America, on Sunday
surpassing those diagnosed in Europe, making the region the second
most affected by the pandemic, after North America.
On the other side of the world, Australian officials were
considering reimposing social distancing measures in some regions on
Monday after reporting the biggest one-day rise in infections in
more than two months.
The first recorded death from the new virus was on Jan. 9, a
61-year-old man from the Chinese city of Wuhan who was a regular
shopper at a wet market that has been identified as the source of
the outbreak.
In just five months, the COVID-19 death toll has overtaken the
number of people who die annually from malaria, one of the most
deadly infectious diseases.
The death rate averages out to 78,000 per month, compared with
64,000 AIDS-related deaths and 36,000 malaria deaths, according to
2018 figures from the World Health Organization.
CHANGING BURIAL RITES
The high number of deaths has led to changes to traditional and
religious burial rites around the world, with morgues and funeral
businesses overwhelmed and loved ones often barred from bidding
farewell in person.
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In Israel, the custom of washing the bodies of Muslim deceased is not permitted,
and instead of being shrouded in cloth, they must be wrapped in a plastic body
bag. The Jewish tradition of Shiva where people go to the home of mourning
relatives for seven days has also been disrupted.
In Italy, Catholics have been buried without funerals or a blessing from a
priest. In New York, city crematories were at one point working overtime,
burning bodies into the night as officials scouted for temporary interment
sites.
In Iraq, former militiamen have dropped their guns to instead dig graves for
coronavirus victims at a specially created cemetery. They have learned how to
conduct Christian, as well as Muslim, burials.
ELDERLY AT RISK
Public health experts are looking at how demographics affect the death rates in
different regions. Some European countries with older populations have reported
higher fatality rates, for instance.
An April report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control looked
at more than 300,000 cases in 20 countries and found that about 46% of all
fatalities were over the age of 80.
In Indonesia, hundreds of children are believed to have died, a development
health officials have attributed to malnutrition, anemia and inadequate child
health facilities.
Health experts caution that the official data likely does not tell the full
story, with many believing that both cases and deaths have likely been
underreported in some countries.
(GRAPHIC: Tracking the spread of the novel coronavirus - http://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html)
(Reporting by Jane Wardell in Sydney and Cate Cadell in Beijing; Editing by
Tiffany Wu and Daniel Wallis)
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