The death toll from COVID-19 reached half a million people on Sunday, according to a Reuters count, a grim milestone for the global pandemic that appears to be re-emerging in some countries, even as other regions are still grappling with the first wave.
Respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus has been particularly dangerous for the elderly, although other adults and children are also among the 500,000 deaths and more than 10 million reported cases.
On average, more than 4,700 people die worldwide from COVID-19-related diseases every 24 hours, 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. In the time it takes to watch a 90-minute soccer game, 293 people would have died on average.
Someone is dying every
18 seconds
of coronavirus related problems,
based on an average from June 1 to June 27.
That’s 0 0 persons
since you’ve been looking at the page
While the overall death rate has flattened in recent weeks, health experts have expressed concern over a record number of new cases in countries such as the United States, India, and Brazil, as well as new outbreaks in parts of Asia.
Past a peak
About a quarter of all deaths so far have been in the United States, although deaths in Brazil and India are increasing rapidly, Reuters data shows.
Daily deaths: 7-day moving average
The first recorded death was on January 9, a 61-year-old man from the Chinese city of Wuhan who was a regular buyer in a wet market that has been identified as the source of the outbreak.
In just five months, the total number of COVID-19-related deaths is now equal to the number of people dying annually from malaria, one of the deadliest infectious diseases.
The average death rate is 78,000 per month, compared to 64,000 AIDS-related deaths and 36,000 malaria deaths, according to 2018 figures from the World Health Organization.
The seven-day moving average for deaths was more than 4,800 per day on June 27, against a peak of almost 7,400 per day on April 19.
Many countries have begun to lift their closure restrictions and allow businesses to reopen, hoping to revive struggling economies and lower unemployment rates. But some governments have had to back down on the reopening amid fears of a second wave of infections.
A changing epicenter
In the United States, the epicenter of the outbreak was originally around New York. But the number of new cases in that state has now decreased each week for 10 consecutive weeks, while new hotspots have emerged in the southern and western United States. The Governor of Texas recently decided to stop the reopening of the state after of an increase of infections and hospitalizations.
Globally, data from a Reuters count shows how the proportion of deaths by region has changed over time, from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and North America, and then to Latin America.
Daily death ratio – percentage
The victims
The high death toll has led to changes in traditional and religious burial rites around the world, with morgues and overwhelmed funeral businesses and loved ones often prohibited from saying goodbye in person.
In Israel, the custom of washing the bodies of deceased Muslims is not allowed, and instead of being wrapped in cloth, they should be wrapped in a plastic bag. Shiva’s Jewish tradition, 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 without the blessing of a priest. In New York, the city’s crematoriums worked overtime, burning bodies at night while officials searched for temporary burial sites.
In Iraq, former militiamen have dumped their weapons to dig graves for coronavirus victims in a specially created cemetery. They have learned to carry out Christian and Muslim burials.
Members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) review a grave before burial in the new Wadi Al-Salam cemetery in Najaf, Iraq, on May 25, 2020. REUTERS / Alaa al-Marjani
Elderly at risk
Public health experts are analyzing how demographics affect death rates in different regions. Some European countries with larger populations have reported higher death rates, for example.
An April report from the EU Centers for Disease Control analyzed more than 300,000 cases in 20 countries and found that about 46% of all deaths were over the age of 80.
In Indonesia, hundreds of children are believed to have died, a development that health officials attributed to malnutrition, anemia and inadequate child health facilities.
Health experts warn that official data probably does not tell the full story, and many believe that both cases and deaths have probably not been reported in some countries.
Graphics by Manas Sharma, Simon Scarr and Gurman Bhatia.
Written by Cate Cadell and Jane Wardell.
Sources
Local state agencies; The local media; Reuters investigation
