SÃO PAULO, Brazil The stinging smell of hand sanitizer hung in the air as men at Vila Formosa Cemetery lowered Manoel Joaquim da Silva into the ground.
A death caused by a suspected case of COVID-19 is flagged as a biohazard, and the D3 stamped at the top of the 79-year-old’s paperwork meant the gravediggers needed to suit up in full personal protective equipment—thick, teal rubber gloves, an N95 mask, and a hooded white plastic suit—before the hearse arrived.
For the family—like many others around the globe—it meant they had just 10 minutes to say goodbye.
Da Silva’s two sons, protected by gloves and masks, gripped the sides of the wooden casket as they carried their father to his final resting place across the