ALAN TAYLOR

APRIL 8, 2020

27 PHOTOS

IN FOCUS

As of today, more than 83,600 people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, since late January, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. This global death toll puts into perspective not just the individual lives lost, but also the thousands of families, communities, and loved ones left behind to cope with grief and uncertainty. New rules and procedures, prompted by the pandemic, have prevented many families from holding memorial services. And, in some of the harder-hit towns and cities, funeral homes and morgues are now reaching capacity. Below, a collection of recent images from around the world, in the midst of a painful and costly pandemic.

Priest Don Marcello blesses the coffins of deceased people inside the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, Italy, on March 28, 2020.

Piero Cruciatti / AFP / Getty
Health-care workers wheel the bodies of deceased people from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the coronavirus outbreak in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on April 4, 2020.

Andrew Kelly / Reuters
An aerial view of newly dug graves in Vila Formosa Cemetery, during a burial amid the coronavirus pandemic in São Paulo, Brazil, on April 1, 2020.

Miguel Schincariol / Getty
Maria Porcel cries on the coffin of her mother, Concepcion Molero, who died on March 31 of the coronavirus at the age of 80, on April 4, 2020, in El Prat de Llobregat, Spain. Due to the state of emergency in Spain, only three relatives are allowed to attend burial ceremonies as a measure to stem the spread of the virus.

David Ramos / Getty
People holding flowers observe a moment of silence at a memorial event in Beijing as China holds a national mourning for those who died of the coronavirus, on the Qingming, or tomb-sweeping day, April 4, 2020.

CNSPhoto via Reuters
People in protective suits offer funeral prayers for a man who died of the new coronavirus, before his burial at a graveyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 6, 2020.

Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters
Coffins, most of them containing the bodies of COVID-19 victims, lie in rows inside a parking area of the Collserola funeral parlor in Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona, Spain, on April 3, 2020.

Pau Barrena / AFP / Getty
Funeral-parlor employees carry the coffin of a coronavirus victim at a cemetery in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on March 31, 2020.

Jorge Cabrera / Reuters
A worker sprays disinfectant on a vehicle carrying a coffin lined up to enter a cemetery in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 2, 2020.

Stringer / Reuters
A woman cries after learning about the death of a relative at Los Ceibos Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 4, 2020. Ecuador’s vice president, Otto Sonnenholzner, apologized on Saturday after scores of bodies were left on the streets of Guayaquil as the coronavirus ravages the port city.

Enrique Ortiz / AFP / Getty
An aerial view shows graves, which, according to local authorities, were prepared in advance for potential victims of the new coronavirus, at a cemetery in Dnipro, Ukraine, on April 5, 2020.

Mykhailo Moskalenko / Reuters
A funeral-service worker looks at coffins of two coronavirus victims, during a burial ceremony in the southern town of Cisternino, Italy, on March 30, 2020.

Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters
Funeral workers wearing protective suits take a break before transporting the body of a person presumed to have died of COVID-19 at a cemetery in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, on April 3, 2020.

Ezra Acayan / Getty
Biohazard warning signs are placed on coffins of people who died of the new coronavirus, at a mortuary near the city of Charleroi, Belgium, on April 7, 2020.

Yves Herman / Reuters
Workers in protective clothing carry a coffin for burial at a newly opened cemetery prepared for victims of the coronavirus in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on April 4, 2020.

Binsar Bakkara / AP
Municipality workers spray disinfectant on a relative of a coronavirus victim during a funeral in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 31, 2020.

Willy Kurniawan / Reuters
Gravediggers wearing protective suits gather at Vila Formosa, Brazil’s biggest cemetery, during the coronavirus outbreak, in São Paulo, Brazil, on April 2, 2020.

Amanda Perobelli / Reuters
Members of the Civil Protection Agency and the Carabinieri carry the coffin of a coronavirus victim in Bergamo, Italy, on April 4, 2020. Some coffins of coronavirus victims are stored in a factory warehouse prior to being transported by the Italian military to a crematorium.

Pier Marco Tacca / Anadolu Agency / Getty
Workers from a funeral service show the process they carry out when working with victims of infectious diseases, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 7, 2020.

Herika Martinez / AFP / Getty
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home, walks through his body holding facility, which is struggling to handle overflow of clients stemming from coronavirus deaths, on April 2, 2020, in Brooklyn, New York. “This is a state of emergency,” he said. “We need help.”

John Minchillo / AP
Refrigerated tractor trailers that can be used by hospitals as makeshift morgues are lined up in the Icahn Stadium parking lot on Randall’s Island in New York City, on March 31, 2020.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters
A brigade wearing biohazard suits pick up a coffin with a body that was left outside a house in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 6, 2020.

Edison Choco / AP
Relatives and others bury a victim of the coronavirus during an Islamic funeral on April 6, 2020, in Wittenheim, France.

Sebastien Bozon / AFP / Getty
Coffins of two victims of the coronavirus are seen during a burial ceremony in the town of Cisternino, Italy, on March 30, 2020.

Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters
A worker wearing personal protective equipment guides the coffin of a coronavirus victim during cremation at the Wilrijk Crematorium in Antwerp, Belgium, on March 31, 2020.

Dirk Waem / BELGA / AFP / Getty
Relatives of Margodt Genevieve, who died of the coronavirus, grieve during her funeral at the Montignies cemetery in Charleroi, Belgium, on April 8, 2020.

Francisco Seco / AP
An employee works on a new coffin at the Eurocoffin factory in Barcelona, Spain, on April 3, 2020.

Pau Barrena / AFP / Getty