New York is mourning 5150 people who have died of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. As in Europe, it is not possible in the USA to hold traditional funerals due to the Corona crisis, so relatives cannot say goodbye in a dignified manner. As a result, the city has now apparently begun to temporarily bury them in mass graves on New York’s Hart Island.
Drone footage shows that the great grave was dug with an excavator. Workers in protective gear stack the corpses in simple coffins side by side and on top of each other, then shovel the mass grave back up with sand. A bulldozer also pushes earth over it.
The island lies in front of the Bronx district, it is only intended to serve as an interim solution. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday: “If we have to bury people in the meantime until the crisis is over, and then discuss the actual funeral with each family, we have the capacity to do that.”
Now the time has come, obviously. The city’s cold stores and hospitals are full, the bodies have to be relocated – as hard as that may be.
▶ ︎ Because the situation is critical: In the past few days, the corona virus has tripled the death rate in the American city. Hundreds of people die not only in hospitals. Also at home. There are 20 to 25 deaths on a normal day, with an average of 200 so far.
The mass graves are used to bury the homeless and the deceased whose relatives cannot afford the cost of another burial.
– .
