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Crematoria and hospitals in Beijing are working overtime because the corona virus is spreading after the release of the unprecedentedly strict corona policy. There have been no corona deaths in China since December 4, according to official data, but research by journalists in Beijing tells a different story.
The journalists of Financial Times he heard from a crematorium in the capital that dozens of corona victims were cremated on Wednesday. “We cremated at least 150 people on Wednesday, far more than on a normal day last winter. 30 or 40 of them had corona,” an employee said.
There was a line of hearses outside the parking lot. One driver told the paper he and his colleagues deliver 20 to 30 dead people a day. On a normal day there are 4 or 5 of them.
In another crematorium there was a sign announcing that only the dead from their own district would be accepted for maintenance of the oven. An employee confirmed that there is an unusually high demand for cremation facilities and that the corona dead are being brought in every day.
“We burn from morning to night,” said another employee. “Ovens can’t handle that.”
Other Media
Other media confirm this image. Radio Asia free read on social media from a hospital employee that his hospital has to wait five to seven days before deceased patients can be taken to the crematorium. Someone from a funeral home told the same media outlet that cremations continue 24 hours a day.
The correspondent of de Volkskrant writes that hospitals, crematoria and private funeral homes have too little cooling space. The relatives therefore choose to cremate the deceased as soon as possible, while the body is normally kept for about five days to say goodbye according to tradition.
A further problem is that crematorium and hospital staff are falling ill en masse because they themselves are infected.
AFP extension
After the grand scale protests against the zero-covid policy, China abandoned this successful but extremely strict policy earlier this month. Scientists fear that the virus could spread quickly because most people have not yet been infected and that the number of deaths will rise dramatically.
Some models predict a peak next March, with 20,000 deaths a day and a million deaths overall. Previously, researchers from Shanghai University had come to a figure of 1.6 million dead. The official death toll now stands at over 5,200.
Health authorities are therefore trying to increase the number of vaccinations as soon as possible. Vaccination rates are low, especially among the elderly. Further ventilators, medicines and corona tests are also being purchased for the campaign.
At the end of next month, the Chinese will celebrate the New Year. Many city dwellers then spend their holidays with their families in the countryside. They were advised to limit contact with older relatives.
