A priest delivers a willow branch to a woman's home in Bucharest, Romania, an attempt to keep an Orthodox Palm Sunday tradition alive despite the ban on joining religious celebrations.
At Jerusalem’s Western Wall, only a handful of men gather to perform the Priestly Benediction, the customary prayer held during Passover — instead of the tens of thousands of worshipers that the blessing usually draws.
Click to Gallery
A priest delivers a willow branch to a woman's home in Bucharest, Romania, an attempt to keep an Orthodox Palm Sunday tradition alive despite the ban on joining religious celebrations.
And still the virus raged on. Barcelona’s visiting health care workers and emergency medical personnel went door to door to tend to Spain’s home-bound elderly, who have suffered the most. New York City, faced with a mounting death toll and dwindling morgue space, shortened the amount of time it will hold unclaimed remains before they are buried in the city’s public cemetery.
A medical worker from China's Jilin Province reacts as she prepares to return home at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020. Within hours of China lifting an 11-week lockdown on the central city of Wuhan early Wednesday, tens of thousands people had left the city by train and plane alone, according to local media reports. (AP PhotoNg Han Guan)
An Israeli man stands on his hands on an empty road during a lockdown following government measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 8, 2020. (AP PhotoOded Balilty)
Residents desperate for a planned distribution of food for those suffering under Kenya's coronavirus-related movement restrictions push through a gate and create a stampede, causing police to fire tear gas and leaving several injured, at a district office in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya, April 10, 2020. (AP PhotoBrian Inganga)
A priest blesses an elderly woman after offering her willow branches, an Orthodox Palm Sunday tradition, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (AP PhotoVadim Ghirda)
Soldiers carry boxes with food to deliver to the poor at the Santa Rosita neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Monday, April 6, 2020, during a stay-at-home curfew designed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP PhotoMoises Castillo)
A worker moves a casket of a COVID-19 deceased into the crematorium oven at the Pontes crematorium and funeral center in Lommel, Belgium, Friday, April 10, 2020. (AP PhotoFrancisco Seco)
A city worker sprays disinfectant as a man sleeps on the street, in central Mexico City, Monday, April 6, 2020. (AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
A volunteer of the Spanish NGO Open Arms pushes in a wheelchair an elderly resident of a nursing home with coronavirus symptoms to a Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, April 11, 2020. (AP PhotoFelipe Dana)
Police officers arrive to escort Ahmed Khaled al-Kaabi and his bride Ruqaya Rahim during their wedding in Najaf, Iraq, April 9, 2020, hardest hit town by coronavirus in the country with government banned large public gatherings. Unwilling to postpone the wedding, al-Kaabi asked the local security forces to help him wed his beloved. The police responded by providing the groom vehicles blasting music to bring his bride to the family home for a small celebration of just six people. (AP PhotoAnmar Khalil)
An Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays as others participate in the Cohanim priestly caste blessing during the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's old city, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (AP PhotoSebastian Scheiner)
Workers bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island, April 9, 2020, in the Bronx borough of New York. On Thursday, New York City's medical examiner confirmed that the city has shortened the amount of time it will hold on to remains to 14 days from 30 days before they will be transferred for temporary internment at a City Cemetery. (AP PhotoJohn Minchillo)
A medical worker injects an elderly woman with a flu vaccine inside a church as part of a government vaccination campaign, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 11, 2020. Health authorities are encouraging people over 65 to be vaccinated against the flu, also a respiratory disease, to reduce complications of those who might contact COVID-19. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)
People gather at the Mount Davidson cross in San Francisco, April 12, 2020. Mount Davidson's annual Easter Sunrise Service was canceled for San Francisco's shelter in place orders over coronavirus concers. (AP PhotoJeff Chiu)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews keep social distancing during the funeral of Israel's ex-Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron who died from coronavirus, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 13, 2020. (AP PhotoOded Balilty)
Pastors wearing face masks while maintaining social distancing attend an Easter service at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 12, 2020. The church decided to replace a service with online ones as part of precaution against the new coronavirus. (AP PhotoLee Jin-man)
Medical move a body behind a fence at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, April 9, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP PhotoJohn Minchillo)
A police officer adjusts a T-shirt as a protective mask for a man they detained for violating the curfew amid coronavirus concerns in El Callao, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. (AP PhotoRodrigo Abd).
A woman stands near a fire lit next to her brother's grave in a cemetery in Herasti, Romania, during a Orthodox Palm Sunday memorial for the departed, April 11, 2020. (AP PhotoVadim Ghirda)
Over the past week, Jews and Christians around the world observed their rites largely in isolation because of restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, the pandemic marked a number of grim milestones: The worldwide death toll surged past 100,000, according to John Hopkins University. The tally in New York City eclipsed the number killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and the United Kingdom became the fourth European country to reach 10,000 deaths.
Medical workers making an emergency home visit walk away from a man, moments after they confirmed he died of severe respiratory problems in Barcelona, Spain, April 6, 2020. (AP PhotoEmilio Morenatti)
And still the virus raged on. Barcelona’s visiting health care workers and emergency medical personnel went door to door to tend to Spain’s home-bound elderly, who have suffered the most. New York City, faced with a mounting death toll and dwindling morgue space, shortened the amount of time it will hold unclaimed remains before they are buried in the city’s public cemetery.
But there were moments of hope, nonetheless. Wuhan ended its 76-day lockdown, allowing residents to again travel without special authorization. Long lines formed at the airport and train and bus stations as thousands streamed out of the Chinese city, where the coronavirus pandemic began.
A lonely man relaxes in a rubber boat in the middle of the Dnipro River escaping from coronavirus human contacts in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 6, 2020. (AP PhotoEfrem Lukatsky)
A medical worker from China's Jilin Province reacts as she prepares to return home at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020. Within hours of China lifting an 11-week lockdown on the central city of Wuhan early Wednesday, tens of thousands people had left the city by train and plane alone, according to local media reports. (AP PhotoNg Han Guan)
An Israeli man stands on his hands on an empty road during a lockdown following government measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 8, 2020. (AP PhotoOded Balilty)
Residents desperate for a planned distribution of food for those suffering under Kenya's coronavirus-related movement restrictions push through a gate and create a stampede, causing police to fire tear gas and leaving several injured, at a district office in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya, April 10, 2020. (AP PhotoBrian Inganga)
A priest blesses an elderly woman after offering her willow branches, an Orthodox Palm Sunday tradition, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (AP PhotoVadim Ghirda)
Soldiers carry boxes with food to deliver to the poor at the Santa Rosita neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Monday, April 6, 2020, during a stay-at-home curfew designed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP PhotoMoises Castillo)
A worker moves a casket of a COVID-19 deceased into the crematorium oven at the Pontes crematorium and funeral center in Lommel, Belgium, Friday, April 10, 2020. (AP PhotoFrancisco Seco)
A city worker sprays disinfectant as a man sleeps on the street, in central Mexico City, Monday, April 6, 2020. (AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
A volunteer of the Spanish NGO Open Arms pushes in a wheelchair an elderly resident of a nursing home with coronavirus symptoms to a Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, April 11, 2020. (AP PhotoFelipe Dana)
Police officers arrive to escort Ahmed Khaled al-Kaabi and his bride Ruqaya Rahim during their wedding in Najaf, Iraq, April 9, 2020, hardest hit town by coronavirus in the country with government banned large public gatherings. Unwilling to postpone the wedding, al-Kaabi asked the local security forces to help him wed his beloved. The police responded by providing the groom vehicles blasting music to bring his bride to the family home for a small celebration of just six people. (AP PhotoAnmar Khalil)
An Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays as others participate in the Cohanim priestly caste blessing during the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's old city, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (AP PhotoSebastian Scheiner)
Workers bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island, April 9, 2020, in the Bronx borough of New York. On Thursday, New York City's medical examiner confirmed that the city has shortened the amount of time it will hold on to remains to 14 days from 30 days before they will be transferred for temporary internment at a City Cemetery. (AP PhotoJohn Minchillo)
A medical worker injects an elderly woman with a flu vaccine inside a church as part of a government vaccination campaign, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 11, 2020. Health authorities are encouraging people over 65 to be vaccinated against the flu, also a respiratory disease, to reduce complications of those who might contact COVID-19. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)
People gather at the Mount Davidson cross in San Francisco, April 12, 2020. Mount Davidson's annual Easter Sunrise Service was canceled for San Francisco's shelter in place orders over coronavirus concers. (AP PhotoJeff Chiu)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews keep social distancing during the funeral of Israel's ex-Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron who died from coronavirus, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 13, 2020. (AP PhotoOded Balilty)
Pastors wearing face masks while maintaining social distancing attend an Easter service at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 12, 2020. The church decided to replace a service with online ones as part of precaution against the new coronavirus. (AP PhotoLee Jin-man)
Medical move a body behind a fence at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, April 9, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP PhotoJohn Minchillo)
A police officer adjusts a T-shirt as a protective mask for a man they detained for violating the curfew amid coronavirus concerns in El Callao, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. (AP PhotoRodrigo Abd).
A woman stands near a fire lit next to her brother's grave in a cemetery in Herasti, Romania, during a Orthodox Palm Sunday memorial for the departed, April 11, 2020. (AP PhotoVadim Ghirda)