New York Times fills front page with names of COVID-19 dead

The New York Times has filled the front page of its Sunday’s edition with the names of those who have died from the novel coronavirus.

All of the usual articles, photographs and graphics were replaced by the list of names and excerpts from their obituaries to memorialise the dead as the U.S. approaches the “grim milestone” of 100,000 coronavirus fatalities, the news outlet wrote.

The assistant editor of the paper’s graphics desk Simone Landon said she and her colleagues realised that “both among ourselves and perhaps in the general public, there’s a little bit of fatigue with the data.”

The page was put together by a researcher who combed through online sources for obituaries and death notices and compiled a list of nearly 1,000 names, the newspaper said in an announcement Saturday.

Short passages were lifted to use on the front page and give a sense of the “uniqueness of each life lost,” including “Alan Lund, 81, Washington, conductor with ‘the most amazing ear’” and “Theresa Elloie, 63, New Orleans, renowned for her business-making detailed pins and corsages.”

Overall, the U.S. has confirmed about 1.6 million cases, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. currently has the world’s highest number of deaths related to the disease.

In New York State, the U.S. state hit hardest by the pandemic, there are more than 360,000 confirmed cases and about 29,000 deaths.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced signs of progress on Saturday, as the state reported its lowest death toll for weeks.

At 84 deaths, the Friday tally marked the first time since March that the daily toll was down in the double digits

Cuomo gave Westchester and the Hudson Valley the green light to reopen starting tomorrow as the coronavirus death toll dipped below 100 for the first time since the crisis erupted in March.

The governor also suggested hard-hit Long Island could start the reopening process on Wednesday if the death toll and case numbers keep dropping in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

“What’s safe in Buffalo is safe in Albany is safe in New York City,” Cuomo said on Saturday.

The death toll dropped to 84 people Friday, the first time it’s dipped below 100 since the pandemic slammed the city and surrounding suburbs more than two months ago.

Cuomo called it a bittersweet benchmark that shows how far New Yorkers have come.