On the Cementerio Sur, behind the working-class Carabanchel district in Madrid, there is a farewell service for a deceased corona patient every seven minutes. There is no time to bring the dead to the funeral home. And so it goes in front of the room, with the box still in the car.
Due to the strict rules of the state of emergency, no more than three people are allowed to say goodbye in Spain.
“I don’t know the stories of all these deaths. But I use simple words, which I speak slowly. I see that it is good for people,” said Pastor José Luis Sáenz (74), who heads the short shifts. Today he says goodbye to forty deceased, all these people are buried. A little further on, the crematorium is in use 24 hours a day. Seventy people are cremated daily, more than double what they are used to here.
More than 16,000 people have died in Spain since the coronavirus outbreak.
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