[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – One million lives lost. A million stories of tragedies.
Since December, when Covid-19 first appeared in Wuhan, China, more than 32 million people have been infected and the coronavirus continues its reign of terror around the world.
Deaths are expected to reach one million this weekend, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, which has been collecting global data on the coronavirus since the start of the outbreak. However, the actual numbers are likely to be much higher due to gaps in testing and reporting.
Correspondents for the Straits Times analyze how countries have fought the virus and meet people around the world who have had to contemplate death even as they find hope and strength to move on.
Here are their stories.
1 million lives lost to Covid-19: the world is set to cross a bleak milestone this weekend
The most affected countries in the world, the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, account for more than half of the deaths from Covid-19 globally, and one in five occurs in the United States. The rest is distributed elsewhere. 190 countries and territories.
India now consistently reports the world’s highest daily count of infections as overburdened healthcare services struggle to control the pandemic. With more than 5.8 million infections, it is second only to the US, which has around seven million cases.
Among the countries of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines have been the most affected. Singapore has managed to minimize the loss of life and keep hospitals free to treat the most serious cases.
READ MORE
Lessons from a million deaths from Covid-19
Given that 95 percent of these casualties occurred in the past six months, will the next million deaths come even sooner? Or will the world find a solution to stop the pandemic?
No one has the answer, but those million deaths provide some valuable advice.
More than 200,000 of them were in the United States which, with 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for more than 20 percent of Covid-19 deaths.
Only four countries (the US, Brazil, India and Mexico) account for more than half of the deaths from Covid-19 globally. The other 480,000 deaths are spread over 190 other countries and territories.
READ MORE
S’porean’s pregnant mother and family grateful to be alive after dream vacation turned into a Covid-19 nightmare
A dream vacation in Europe that a family had planned for six months turned out to be a nightmare they are thankful for surviving.
Three days after the Ng-Chans returned on March 21, having canceled two stops due to the looming pandemic, three family members fell ill with Covid-19.
Ms. Celine Ng-Chan, a 31-year-old teacher who was 10 weeks pregnant, found out she had Covid-19 after going to the doctor with a sore throat. That night, her two-year-old daughter, Aldrina, also had a fever.
READ MORE
Burying his heartbreak: Indonesian gravedigger rests dozens of Covid-19 victims every day
Indonesian gravedigger Adang Saputra’s heart breaks every time he hears the all-too-familiar prayers for the dead and the cries of anguished family members as the coffin of a Covid-19 victim is laid on the ground.
The 40-year-old hides his grief as he piles up wet red soil on the grave, plants a wooden headstone with the deceased’s name carefully written in marker on the ground, and offers a silent prayer.
Then, almost mechanically, he wanders to an ambulance waiting for him to help unload the next body for burial.
READ MORE
Running headlong into the unknown: Beijing doctor leaves family to join Covid-19 fight in Wuhan
Just the day before, he had put his name on a list to volunteer for medical reinforcements for Wuhan, the city in central China in the grip of an unknown virus.
When he received the call on January 27, the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, Beijing intensive care physician Liu Zhuang felt a mixture of emotions, anticipation and anxiety as adrenaline rushed through him.
“We had no idea about the severity of the virus, how the disease would behave, and the exact condition of the patients we were dealing with,” said Dr. Liu. “It was with great nervousness and unknowns that we left for Wuhan.”
READ MORE
‘I just didn’t want to fight anymore’: Covid-19 patient almost gave up, but family’s plea kept him on his feet
He knew from the moment his doctor told him he would have to be intubated that death would be a whisper away.
“I told him that if he did that, he would already have one foot in the grave,” recalls Judd de León, a recruiting specialist for the talent firm Cielo.
It was the middle of July. He had heard those stories about what a death sentence for Covid-19 patients was like to use a ventilator. So when his doctor told him his only option was that, he resisted.
READ MORE
‘A soldier must go to war, me too’: South Korean nurse who fought Mers in 2015 returns to the frontline of Covid-19
When a patient died of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) in front of her eyes during an outbreak in 2015, nurse Kim Hyun-ah wrote that she would “hold on to every patient and never let go, so the angel of death can’t them away. “
His letter, published in a major newspaper on June 15, 2015, moved many to tears.
In March, three years after quitting to become a writer, Ms Kim returned to the front line when Covid-19 broke out in the southeastern city of Daegu, where her mother lived.
READ MORE
Knowing that Covid-19 was at their doorstep, a family of 8 planned their strategy to combat it
When 17-year-old Aman Gwjwn developed a persistent cough and cold in July while on vacation at her grandmother’s house in Bangalore, her family of eight went to war, preparing for Covid-19 to ravage their home.
Everyone from a 14-year-old eighth-grader to a near-octogenarian would become infected. But the Chinese-Indian family slowly won their battle against the disease over the next month and a half, armed with discipline, composure and logistical planning.
“Our approach was: Surely we will all make it, but we will all survive as a family. We just made sure that not everyone got sick together, so that some people were healthy enough to take care of the others,” said Ms Jennifer Liang , 48, mother of Aman and social worker in Assam who flew to Bangalore immediately.
READ MORE
‘It was all the people I knew’: a US nurse finds ‘new hope’ despite losing friends and patients to Covid-19
It was April in New York, and the cold winter was easing slightly in a city devastated by ambulances roaming deserted streets and hospital tents set up in Central Park.
In late March and early April, nearly 1,700 people were being hospitalized daily, according to the New York City health department.
One of the people who fought on the front lines of the devastating pandemic was Ms Sachiko Kiyomi, a night shift nurse in a nursing home, who was taking a body to the morgue one night in April when she was told it was full, and had to put it in a refrigerated truck.
READ MORE
[ad_2]
