Rituals upended amid coronavirus pandemic

Brasilia, May 11 (AP) A man in a full protective suit prepares to remove the body of someone who died at home in one of the Brazilian cities hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

A woman speaks through a closed window to her daughter and grandchild on Mother's Day in the United States.

The pandemic has upended the rituals of both life and death across the globe. In their place, new rituals have sprung up.

In New York City, for instance, the subway is shutting in the middle of the night in order to disinfect the trains. That means clearing the cars and stations of people at the end of the line - a process that has put a spotlight on the city's homeless, many of whom have long taken refuge on the subways.

Around the US this past Sunday, families celebrated a strange Mother's Day - wishing moms well through video calls or windows in the era of social distancing.

And still the virus continues to kill in many places.

In Brazil, freshly dug graves are filling up from Manaus on the Amazon River to Rio de Janeiro on the Atlantic Ocean. (AP) SCYSCY