At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in New York, images of refrigerated trucks carrying thousands of corpses went around the world. A year later, 750 Covid deaths are still in the trucks, as the office of the highest forensic surgeon in the US east coast metropolis confirmed yesterday on request.
At the time, the refrigerated trucks were set up for long-term use to ensure that families can bury their relatives in peace. “We continue to work with individual families on a case-by-case basis with sensitivity and compassion during their grief,” said spokesman Mark Desire.
In Brooklyn parking lot
The spokesman confirmed media reports about the trucks parked in a parking lot in Brooklyn. They should be gradually emptied over the coming weeks and months. In the spring of 2020, New York’s Covid-19 death toll had risen to hundreds a day, well beyond the city’s capacity.
The city then used the vans at hospitals – the images became a symbol of the coronavirus outbreak in the metropolis. Many of the dead were anonymously buried on an island in the East River. In the meantime, the situation in New York has clearly improved: thanks to falling infections and an advancing vaccination campaign, the metropolis wants to lift almost all restrictions on its citizens in May.
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