In New York, United States, the coronavirus pandemic is taking on extraordinary proportions. On site, the morgues are overwhelmed by the number of victims of the coronavirus. Refrigerated trucks are requisitioned to store bodies.
The excitement in the streets of New York. Already in the early hours of the spread of Covid-19 in the Big Apple, the unbearable scenes: refrigerated trucks, posted at the exit of hospitals, responsible for storing bodies that the morgues of the megalopolis could not then contain. Death in the open air: “It is reality, it is what is happening”, laments an American citizen who films the scene from his vehicle. In front of him, employees in coveralls, equipped with a pallet truck, arrange the victims of Covid-19 in a heavy truck.
The scene was filmed on March 30. And in New York, since then, the situation could not have gotten worse. Today, the New York megalopolis deplores 7,000 deaths linked to the new coronavirus. Gradually, alongside the refrigerated trucks were installed trailers and white tents with refrigeration facilities.
“Temporary burials”?
Overcrowded mortuaries, and crowded bodies: a situation such as Mark Levine, elected from upper Manhattan, suggested last Monday to carry out “temporary burials” in a city park: “This will probably be done using a municipal park for burials. Trenches will be dug for rows of 10 coffins, “said the latter on his Twitter account.
To recap: Nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living. But we need to face the gruesome reality that we need more resources to manage our dead as well. Or the pain of this crisis will be compounded almost beyond comprehension. 13/13
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 6, 2020
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A point shared by the mayor of the city, Bill de Blasio who mentioned the same day the idea of ”temporary burials”. A city spokesperson later reassured: “We do not currently plan to use parks as cemeteries,” said spokesperson Freddi Goldstein.
Heart of Hart Island
Horror, too, off Manhattan, on Hart Island. The island has been used as a gigantic cemetery for 150 years. Normally, it is on this piece of land that people who have no family or loved ones identified after death are buried. There are destitute, homeless, stillborn children. For a few dollars, once a week, inmates at Ryker’s Island prison are normally assigned to come and bury the bodies. The latter were recently replaced by employees dressed in full white coats. Filmed by the american tabloid The New York Post, all bury bodies in the earth in makeshift coffins, all grouped together in a common grave.
This drone footage captures NYC workers burying bodies in a mass grave on Hart Island, just off the coast of the Bronx. For over a century, the island has served as a potter’s field for deceased with no known next of kin or families unable to pay for funerals. pic.twitter.com/wBVIGlX6aK
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 9, 2020
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Asked by the New York newspaper, Melinda Hunt, the manager explains: “We do not know if Covid-19 patients have been buried here, because none have been tested. […] 23 bodies (were) buried last Thursday, that’s a lot more than usual “. The New York Post indicates, from an official source of the town hall that no victim of Covid-19 has been buried on site for the moment.
For Freddi Goldstein, spokesperson within the municipality, New York will have to go through this: “the city will have no other choice in the coming days than to bury on Hart Island the dead from Covid-19 n ‘not identified or unclaimed by the family “.
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