The city of NY has hired workers to bury several of those killed by covid-19 on the island of Hart in a mass grave, as the number of deaths from the outbreak of coronavirus continues to increase.
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Images recorded with a drone reveal several workers dressed in white protective suits using a ladder to descend into a huge pit where the coffins are stacked.
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A refrigerated truck is also seen in which there are about two dozen bodies.
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Located on the east coast of the Bronx district, this island has been used for more than 150 years to bury New Yorkers without close relatives or who cannot afford a funeral.
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Prisoners on Rikers Island, the city’s main prison complex, often do the burial work, but the increasing workload has recently been taken over by contractors, the BBC.
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New York State now has more cases of coronavirus than any other country: more than 161,000 infections, according to the latest figures from John Hopkins University. In addition, more than 7,000 people have died.
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The death toll in New York began to rise in March as the new coronavirus spread rapidly, making the state the epicenter of the global pandemic.
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About two dozen bodies a day, five days a week, are buried on the island, said Jason Kersten, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, which oversees the burials, quoted by Reuters.
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Earlier this week, the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, indicated that “temporary burials” may be necessary until the crisis has passed.
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“Obviously the place we have historically used is Hart Island,” said de Blasio.
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Last Monday, a New York city councilor announced that the city was shaping an emergency plan to bury the dead by the coronavirus in parks temporarily, since the morgues and cemeteries are not enough.
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“We will start ‘temporary burials’ soon. This will likely be done using a New York park for burials (yes, you read that right),” Democratic Councilman Mark Levine, who chairs the city’s health commission, tweeted.
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“Trenches for 10 coffins will be dug in a row. It will be done in a dignified, orderly and temporary manner. But it will be hard for New Yorkers to swallow,” he added.
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Despite alarming numbers of victims of the coronavirus in New York, the Governor Andrew Cuomo He stressed on Thursday that the number of those admitted to hospitals fell for the second day to 200.
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