New York buries 25 dead a day in mass grave

Potter’s Field on Hart Island, near the Bronx, has been a final resting place for those without family or money to pay for a funeral since the 1800s. Under normal circumstances, the bodies on the island are buried by inmates from Rikers Island. Today, the city has recruited indentured laborers to bury the many dead.

Usually about 25 people are buried each week. Now it’s about 25 people a day, 5 days a week.

More than 5,000 people have died from the coronavirus in New York City. Due to the crisis, morgues in the city are gradually becoming overcrowded. Mayor Bill de Blasio sees Hart Island as a possible solution. Anyone who has no loved ones to claim them within 14 days will be buried on Hart Island. Two new trenches have already been dug at the old poor man’s grave, “in case they are needed,” said spokesman Jason Kersten of the responsible department. “We hope it doesn’t come to that. But if it is, we’re ready.”

New York state is considered the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. Today a new low was reached. No country in the world has more infections than the state. Nearly 160,000 people in New York state have been infected with the virus. Spain is in second place with 153,222 infections, Italy is in third place with 143,626 cases.

This is evident from figures from the American University Johns Hopkins, which closely monitors the infections worldwide. In total, more than 466,000 people are infected in the US. Worldwide, just over 1.6 million have contracted the virus.

In terms of death toll, Italy (18,279), the US (16,686), Spain (15,447) and France (12,210) have been worst affected by the outbreak. Until this week, the US government assumed that the total death toll in the US could rise to between 100,000 and 200,000.

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