The city of NY, hot spot of coronavirus epicenter in the United States, suggests doing “temporary burials” digging trenches in parks before the growing number of deaths from covid-19, that threatens overflow the morgues so much established as emergency mobiles, according to their authorities on Monday.
“Trenches for 10 coffins”
Councilman Mark Levine said on his Twitter account that “temporary burials” will be done “soon” using “a New York City park for gravesites” in which “will be dug trenches for ten coffins in line ” in a “dignified, orderly and temporary” a possibility confirmed by Mayor Bill de Blasio but from which Governor Andrew Cuomo dissociated himself.
Asked about the question, De Blasio did not want to “go into detail” and stated that “we are not yet at the point where we have to do that” but mentioned Hart’s Island a site “historically used” by the city to give burial to low income people or that were not claimed by anyone, considered the largest cemetery in the country.
“If we need to do temporary burials to weather the crisis and then work with each family to have their proper arrangements, we will have the capacity to do so,” explained the mayor, who has “been working closely with the federal government” to prevent it and advocated for “putting all the energy and resources to save people.”
For his part, Governor Cuomo said that 599 people died in New York from Sunday to Monday for the coronavirus, practically the same number as the previous day, and he acknowledged that he has “heard wild rumors ” on temporary burials but also claimed to be in communication with local authorities and not “heard anything” from him on the matter.
Levine himself later clarified that the measure is “a contingency for which New York City is preparing, but if the death rate falls enough, it will not be necessary.”
“Equivalent to 9/11”
Levine indicated that the number of corpses of people who died in the COVID-19 crisis that are accumulating is “equivalent to September 11” and because of this the refrigerated chambers of the local Medical Office, considered the “local morgue”, will soon “be full”, a problem that extends to hospital morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries, which are resorting to measures reinforcement.
“The typical morgue of a hospital can hold 15 bodies. Now they are all full. The Medical Office has sent 80 refrigerated trucks to hospitals (mobile morgues) of the whole city, which can house 100 bodies each. They are almost all full too. Some hospitals have had to add a second or a third truck, “explained the councilor.
Levine assured that “nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living” but the population “must confront the macabre reality that we need more resources to manage our deceased as well “, which is why he called for recruiting not only health personnel, but also” mortuary affairs “professionals to reinforce these services.
“Bereaved families have said they have called up to half a dozen funeral homes and there are none that can care for their deceased loved ones. Cemeteries cannot cope with the number of burial requests and most are declining. And they are not alone. deaths in hospitals what goes up “.
More than 200 dead at home
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According to Levine, on “a normal day before the crisis” there were between 20 and 25 deaths at home in New York City, but in the wake of this pandemic the number is has shot to between 200 and 214 “every day,” he stressed, which increases the difficulties in keeping track.
The authorities “do not have the capacity to test (for coronavirus) the large number of people who are dying in their homes”, so only those who died from covid-19 are recorded in the certificates, those who had a positive and “That almost certainly means that we are under-registering the victims of the pandemic“added the councilor.
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