Coronavirus: New York ramps up mass burials amid outbreak

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Coronavirus: New York ramps up mass burials amid outbreak

10 April 2020

Images have emerged of coffins being buried in a mass grave in New York City, as the death toll from the coronavirus continues to rise.

Workers in hazmat outfits were seen stacking wooden coffins in deep trenches in Hart Island.

Officials say burials are being ramped up at site, which has long been used for people with no next-of-kin or families who cannot afford a funeral.

-snip-

Normally, about 25 bodies a week are interred on the island, according to the Associated Press news agency.

But burial operations have increased from one day a week to five days a week, with around 24 burials each day, said Department of Correction spokesman Jason Kersten.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52241221


About 40 bodies were buried on Thursday (Reuters)

[tulipsandroses]

1. I heard Mayor Diblasio say that these would be temporary burial sites

due to the crisis of not having enough storage for the bodies. He also said that they would be individual graves, not mass graves in the event family comes forward to claim the bodies. I'm looking at a mass grave in that picture. I do hope there will be someway that family can claim the remains of loved ones if they come forward in the future. In this pandemic, who knows why family have not been able to claim their loved ones. With jobs lost, they may not have the money for a funeral. They may be ill themselves.

Hopefully this does not turn into a nightmare where if they want to claim their loved ones' remains they cannot be identified in those mass graves.

[Adsos Letter]

2. I wonder how many of these represent deaths in the homeless community.