Coronavirus: Victims buried in a mass grave on an island in New York – 20 minutes
It has long been nicknamed “the island of the dead”. Located northeast of the Bronx, Hart Island is used as a mass grave
New York since 1869. Since the start of the pandemic of
coronavirus, dozens of bodies of Covid-19 victims not claimed by relatives are buried on the island.
“We will continue to use the island for this purpose during the crisis and it is likely that people who died as a result of the Covid-19 who fall under one of these cases will be buried there in the coming days, “a New York City spokesman told AFP.
One million dead buried on the island
They are usually prisoners, taken from the famous prison of Rikers Island nearby, which provide burials. But given the risk of contamination and concerns about the spread of the virus in detention, the task is currently being carried out by employees of a contractor, a New York city spokesman said.
Twenty-four people are buried each day today, against an average of 25 per week before the pandemic, according to a spokesman for the city’s prison services, which manage the place. In more than a hundred years, more than a million people unidentified, unclaimed or for whom relatives have been unable to pay funeral were buried on the island.
New York State remains most affected in the United States, with 777 new deaths in the past 24 hours and 7,844 deaths in total since the pandemic hit the region.
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