Coronavirus victims could be temporarily buried in trenches in NYC parks, official says
New York City parks could be used as temporary burial sites for coronavirus victims if death rates don’t decrease, a city official tweeted Monday
Mark Levine, chairman of the New York City Council’s Department of Health, wrote on Twitter that the city could soon start “temporary interment,” which would include digging trenches that could hold 10 caskets in the parks.
“It will be done in a dignified, orderly — and temporary — manner,” he wrote on Twitter. “But it will be tough for NYers to take.”
Levine emphasized that this is a contingency plan and won’t be necessary if the “death rates drop enough.”
The United States has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, with more than 347,000 as of April 6, according to Johns Hopkins University, and New York City has emerged as an epicenter of the pandemic.
More than 10,000 deaths have been reported in the U.S., more than 3,000 of which are in New York City.
Levine tweeted that, along with the city’s healthcare system, its “system for managing its dead” is being “pushed to the limit.”
He said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, hospital morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries are “dealing with the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11.”
Hospital morgues are full and cemeteries and funeral homes are being forced to turn people away, he wrote.
“Every part of this system is now backed up,” the tweet said.
Other countries that have been hit hard by the pandemic have also been overwhelmed with high death rates.
In Italy, where more than 16,500 have died from COVID-19, the mortuary system has been “inundated” and unable to handle the amount of death the country is experiencing, BBC reports.
The country’s military removed 70 coffins from Bergamo, which had an especially high death rate, in March and transported them to a less-overwhelmed city to be cremated, NBC reports.
Additionally, funerals were banned nationwide.
A few weeks ago, images circulated of burial pits being built in Iran, CNN reports. The country has 60,500 cases of the virus as of April 6 and more than 3,700 hundred have died.
Levine tweeted that the goal is to avoid a situation like the one in Italy, but that the city needs help to do that.
“Nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living. But we need to face the gruesome reality that we need more resources to manage our dead as well,” he wrote. “Or the pain of this crisis will be compounded almost beyond comprehension.”
