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 The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus this year is now
double the number of people who die annually from malaria - and the
death rate has increased in recent weeks as infections surge in
several countries.
"Our world has reached an agonizing milestone," U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
"It's a mind-numbing figure. Yet we must never lose sight of each
and every individual life. They were fathers and mothers, wives and
husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues."
It took just three months for COVID-19 deaths to double from half a
million, an accelerating rate of fatalities since the first death
was recorded in China in early January.
More than 5,400 people are dying around the world every 24 hours,
according to Reuters calculations based on September averages,
overwhelming funeral businesses and cemeteries.
That equates to about 226 people an hour, or one person every 16
seconds. In the time it takes to watch a 90-minute soccer match, 340
people die on average.
(Reuters interactive graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2VqS5PS)
"So many people have lost so many people and haven't had the chance
to say goodbye. Many people who died died alone... It's a terribly
difficult and lonely death," World Health Organization (WHO)
spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.
INFECTIONS RISING
Experts remain concerned that the official figures for deaths and
cases globally significantly under-represent the real tally because
of inadequate testing and recording and the possibility of
concealment by some countries.
The response to the pandemic has pitted proponents of health
measures like lockdowns against those intent on sustaining
politically sensitive economic growth, with approaches differing
from country to country.
The United States, Brazil and India, which together account for
nearly 45% of all COVID-19 deaths globally, have all lifted social
distancing measures in recent weeks.
"The American people should anticipate that cases will rise in the
days ahead," U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned on Monday. U.S.
deaths stood at 205,132 and cases at 7.18 million by late Monday.
India, meanwhile, has recorded the highest daily growth in
infections in the world, with an average of 87,500 new cases a day
since the beginning of September.
On current trends, India will overtake the United States as the
country with the most confirmed cases by the end of the year, even
as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pushes ahead with
easing lockdown measures in a bid to support a struggling economy.
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Despite the surge in cases, India's death toll of 96,318, and pace of growth of
fatalities, remains below those of the United States, Britain and Brazil. India
on Tuesday reported its smallest rise in deaths since Aug. 3, continuing a
recent easing trend that has baffled experts.
In Europe, which accounts for nearly 25% of deaths, the WHO has warned of a
worrying spread in western Europe just weeks away from the winter flu season.
The WHO has also warned the pandemic still needs major control interventions
amid rising cases in Latin America, where many countries have started to resume
normal life.
Much of Asia, the first region affected by the pandemic, is experiencing a
relative lull after emerging from a second wave. South Korea pleaded for people
to stay at home ahead of the autumn thanksgiving holiday of Chuseok, which
begins on Wednesday, but millions are still expected to travel across the
country.
BURIAL STRAIN
The high number of deaths has led to changes burial rites around the world, with
morgues and funeral businesses overwhelmed and loved ones often barred from
bidding farewell in person.
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, while in Iraq former militiamen dropped their guns to dig graves at a
specially created cemetery and learned how to conduct both Christian and Muslim
burials.
In some parts of Indonesia, bereaved families have barged into hospitals to
claim bodies, fearing their relatives might not be given a proper burial.
An indigenous group in the Ecuadorean Amazon took two police officers and a
state official hostage, demanding authorities return the body of a community
leader for a traditional burial.
The United States, Indonesia, Bolivia, South Africa and Yemen have all had to
locate new burial sites as cemeteries fill up.
(Reporting by Jane Wardell; additional reporting by Shaina Ahluwalia, Seerat
Gupta and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)
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