The world turned the page on 2020 last month, but the coronavirus pandemic continued to hold sway over lives, deaths, rituals, ceremonies and prayers, as captured by AP photographers in January. (Image: AP)

At a Los Angeles hospital, a chaplain clad in protective gear to safeguard his own health placed his hand on the head of a COVID-19 patient in blessing. For the past 11 months, he and others have entered the rooms of the sick and dying to comfort them and reassure them there is nothing to fear. (Image: AP)

In Bucharest, Romania, a coffin crowned with red and white flowers and containing the remains of Holocaust survivor Iancu Tucarman, who died of the virus at age 98, was wheeled past an honor guard of uniformed soldiers for burial. (Image: AP)

And in Vatican City, St. Peter’s Square stood practically deserted as Pope Francis recited the Angelus noon prayer in his studio instead of at a window overlooking the plaza due to health restrictions. That was just one of countless rites around the globe altered because of the virus. (Image: AP)

In Washington, Joe Biden’s inaugural ceremony outside the Capitol was held in front of a drastically pared-down group of socially distanced attendees, with the new president swearing in on a thick Bible that’s been a “family heirloom” since 1893. (Image: AP)

Two weeks earlier, inside the same building, lawmakers wearing face masks bowed their heads for the closing prayer of a joint session of Congress to confirm Electoral College votes — hours after a violent insurrection by rioters bent on overturning Biden’s election. (Image: AP)

Nepalese Hindu devotees offer prayers along the banks of the Hanumante River during Madhav Narayan Festival in Bhaktapur, Nepal, January 28. During the festival, devotees recite holy scriptures dedicated to Hindu goddess Swasthani and Lord Shiva. Unmarried women pray to get a good husband while those married pray for the longevity of their husbands by observing a month-long fast. (Image: AP)

Roses with a note saying "#weremember", is placed on the Holocaust Memorial on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in Berlin, Germany, January 27. (Image: AP)

The Rev. David R. Steele, Associate Clergy at Luke's Episcopal church receives the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination at a pop-up vaccination site at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, January 26, in the Bronx borough of New York. (Image: AP)

Men pray on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Dome of the Rock Mosque one the Al Aqsa Mosque compound for Friday prayers in the Old City of Jerusalem, January 22. Many people prayed outside the gates of the Old City, due to coronavirus restrictions on gathering at the mosque compound. (Image: AP)

A model wears a creation by Haitian designer Mackenley Darius during a voodoo fashion show in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 21. Mackenley, a former student of the National School of the Arts, is working to promote with the help of friends, artists and designers, his country's culture, most especially voodoo, a religion that he feels is misunderstood. (Image: AP)

Villagers release firecrackers and hold placards featuring U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris after her inauguration, in Thulasendrapuram, the hometown of Harris' maternal grandfather, south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu state, India, January 20. Residents of a tiny Indian village surrounded by rice paddies flocked to a Hindu temple, setting off firecrackers and praying and as they watched Kamala Harris, who has strong roots to the village, take her oath of office and become the U.S. vice president on January 20. (Image: AP)

Relatives weep as they pray during the burial of Fadly Satrianto, a victim of the crash of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182 in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, January 15. More searchers and rescuers joined the search Friday for wreckage and victims from the Indonesian plane that crashed in the Java Sea. (Image: AP)

A group of Naga girls in traditional attire accompany a bride-to-be, center, as she leaves her village to travel to the village of her groom, in Shangshak village, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, January 15. Nagas are an indigenous people living in several northeastern Indian states and across the border in Myanmar. (Image: AP)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray in a divided section during nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's old city, January 11. (Image: AP)

A worker from "Hevra Kadisha," Israel's official Jewish burial society, dress in full protective gear rests at a special morgue for people who died from COVID-19, during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in the central Israeli city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, Israel, January 10. (Image: AP)

A patient holds an Our Lady of Guadalupe card in his bed while talking to chaplain Nancy Many at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on January 9. As families are barred from visiting loved ones to curb the disease's spread, chaplains often are there to act as surrogates, holding the hands of the dying, praying with them and carrying iPads into hospital rooms to provide a real-time connection with grieving families. (Image: AP)

Young Catholic devotees wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus stand try to get a glimpse of the the Black Nazarene at the Santa Cruz Church in Manila, Philippines a day before it's feast day on January 8. The annual January 9 procession attended by tens of thousands of devotees has been cancelled amid the threat of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in one of Asia's biggest religious events. (Image: AP)

Coronavirus pandemic's sway over life, death, rites, prayers

The world turned the page on 2020 last month, but the coronavirus pandemic continued to hold sway over lives, deaths, rituals, ceremonies and prayers, as captured by AP photographers in January.