New York City may soon have to conduct temporary burials of coronavirus victims as the death toll overwhelms morgues and crematoriums, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.
People killed by the disease could be temporarily interred at Hart Island, the city’s sprawling potter’s field.
“If we need to do temporary burials to be able to tide us over to pass the crisis, and then work with each family on their appropriate arrangements, we have the ability to do that,” de Blasio told reporters Monday.
The mayor refused to go into detail on the city’s plans to deal with a flood of bodies, but said, “obviously the place we have used historically is Hart Island.” The public cemetery off the coast of the Bronx holds the bodies of more than 1 million New Yorkers buried in mass graves.
The deluge of fatalities from Covid-19 has filled hospital morgues, with bodies now being stored in refrigerated trucks, some sent in by FEMA. Funeral homes and crematoriums have been overwhelmed, with crematories now allowed to operate 24 hours a day.
New York is also preparing for the possibility of temporary mass burials in city parks, said Council Member Mark Levine, the chairman of the Health Committee.
“This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line,” he said in a tweet. “It will be done in a dignified, orderly — and temporary — manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.”
He said that was a contingency plan that may be necessary if the death rate does not drop.
“The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets,” Levine said, adding that the city medical examiner’s office “is going to need much more staff to achieve that goal.”
As of Monday morning, 2,475 New York City residents have died of the coronavirus. The total number of cases is up to 67,820.
“Yes, there will be delays because of the sheer intensity of this crisis,” de Blasio said. “We’re going to try and treat every family with dignity, respect religious needs of those who are devout. And the focus right now is to try and get through this crisis.”
The mayor spoke during a visit to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Crye Precision is using its factory to make protective gowns for hospital workers.
New York hospitals went through 1.8 million surgical gowns last week, and are expected to use 2.5 million this week.
De Blasio also announced the city now has enough N95 masks for health care workers to make it through the week, with 600,000 sent by the federal government for private hospitals expected to arrive Monday.
Source: Politico
