(CNN) Sunday's edition of The Boston Globe contained a shocking visualization of the coronavirus pandemic: page after page after page of death notices.

The obituary section in Sunday's print edition spanned 16 pages. This time last year, there were seven. The increase is a stark illustration of the devastating toll the pandemic is having on Massachusetts and New England.

"It's literally showing it in black and white how deadly this virus can be," said Jaclyn Reiss , the Globe's digital editor, in an interview with CNN.

And while Reiss noted there was no immediate way to determine how many of the death notices that filled pages A-13 to A-28 came from coronavirus victims -- death notices don't always say how the person died -- several of them mentioned a battle with the virus.

A stark reality: Sunday's Boston Globe runs 16 pages of death notices https://t.co/yKzU8BemJn pic.twitter.com/02HIOxaNLR — The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 20, 2020

The section has "been growing every Sunday since the coronavirus pandemic has been surging here in Massachusetts," Reiss said, adding that the previous Sunday, the paper ran 11 pages of death notices.

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