1 million are dead, but the toll continues to go up

It is something few would have expected and is ringing alarm bells at a frenetic pace. The death of over a million people owing to the coronavirus is utterly shocking and only reaffirms the fact that the coronavirus is like a Godzilla straddling the globe menacingly, claiming new victims in its wake as it wreaks havoc.

The number is more than four times those killed in the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

It exceeds annual deaths from AIDS, which last year killed about 690,000 people worldwide. The virus’s toll is approaching the 1.5 million global deaths each year from tuberculosis.

Like the poet James Shirley’s Death, the Coronavirus has become the Great Leveller. People both of low and high station have been among the victims.

Fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters… all have succumbed to the dreaded plague, much to the horror and grief of their loved ones who escaped its lethal attack. What is worse is that the risk of infection has prevented a family from visiting their afflicted member, much as they want to.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says the loss of a million people to the coronavirus is an “agonising milestone” that has been made worse by the “savageness of this disease.”

In a statement, Guterres called it a “mind-numbing figure.”

More than 5,400 people are dying around the world every 24 hours, according to reported calculations. That equates to about 226 people an hour, or one person every 16 seconds. In the time it takes to watch a 90-minute football match, 340 people die on an average.

But the doubting Thomases feel that the one-million figure could be an understatement: many deaths were probably missed because of insufficient testing and inconsistent reporting, and some suspect concealment by countries like Russia and Brazil.

The global death toll is a bleak milestone in a pandemic that has destroyed the global economy, overburdened health systems that are groaning under its strain and dramatically – and drastically – changed the way people live.

The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus this year is now double the number of people who die annually from malaria.

What is more astonishing is that it took just three months for COVID-19 deaths to double from half a million.

The high number of deaths has led to changes in burial rites around the world, with morgues and funeral businesses overwhelmed and loved ones often barred from bidding farewell in person.

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.

The process of mourning and celebrating a life has been kept on hold.

Yes, there seems to be no end in sight to the overarching, debilitating influence of the virus and its accompanying, terrible after-effects: the loss of jobs, the disruption of education, the upheaval in our lives.

With so many of the deaths beyond view in hospital wards and clustered on society’s margins, the milestone recalls the grim pronouncement often attributed to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin: one death is a tragedy, millions of deaths are a statistic.

With approval and distribution of a vaccine still probably months away and winter approaching, the toll could continue to climb. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of a worrying spread in western Europe just weeks away from the winter flu season.

However, all is not lost. Amid the abyssal depths of despair, one must not lose hope. As Guterres said, the pandemic could be overcome with responsible leadership, cooperation and science, and precautions such as social distancing and wearing face masks.” Any vaccine must be available and affordable to all.”