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Monday, April 6, 2020
New York To Bury COVID-19 Victims In City Parks
In a shocking example of just how bad things are in New York City, Mark Levine, the chairman of the New York City Health Committee said in a Twitter thread that the system for handling dead bodies is so overwhelmed that the city will resort to burying the dead in parks.
Calling the pandemic “the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11,” Levine said that every aspect of the system is now “backed up.” That includes hospital morgues, funeral homes, and cemeteries.
Levine goes on to explain that 80 refrigerated semi-trailers had been deployed around the city to supplement hospital morgues. Hospital morgues hold about 15 bodies and the trailers can hold 100 bodies each. Some hospitals have two or three trailers but are still running out of room.
A typical hospital morgue might hold 15 bodies. Those are now all full. So OCME has sent out 80 refrigerated trailers to hospitals around the city. Each trailer can hold 100 bodies. These are now mostly full too. Some hospitals have had to add a 2nd or even a 3rd trailer. 3/
The Coronavirus deaths are in addition to the 20-25 deaths that would occur in New York on an average day. The pandemic has increased that number by a factor of 10 to more than 200 daily deaths.
COVID-19 deaths may even be undercounted. Levine says that attempts to test people who died at home for the virus have failed because of the lack of test kits.
It’s not just deaths in hospitals which are up. On an average day before this crisis there were 20-25 deaths at home in NYC. Now in the midst of this pandemic the number is 200-215. *Every day*. 5/
Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home. 6/
Due to the increasing number of bodies, Levine says that the city will soon start “temporary interments” in mass graves in city parks. Ten caskets will be buried in a single trench in what he calls a “dignified, orderly – and temporary – manner.”
Soon we'll start “temporary interment”. 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.
It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take. 9/
Levine closes his thread with a request for doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists from other parts of the country to help New York’s deluged medical professionals. He also asks for aid from mortuary professionals.
As New York City continues to appeal to the nation for help, we need to ask not just for doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists. We also need mortuary affairs staff. This is tough to talk about and maybe tough to ask for. But we have no choice. The stakes are too high. 12/
To recap: 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. Or the pain of this crisis will be compounded almost beyond comprehension. 13/13
“Nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living,” Levine says, “But we need to face the gruesome reality that we need more resources to manage our dead as well.”
The news also underscores that people who insist that the American economy should be reopened immediately are deeply and dangerously wrong. Prematurely reopening businesses would have the same effect as the calls by New York’s city leaders in February for New Yorkers to attend public events. It would allow the virus to spread quickly through other cities and states.
In a few weeks, much of the rest of the country could look like New York.
UPDATE: New York officials are backing away from the plan to use city parks for temporary burials. The press secretary for Mayor Bill De Blasio tweeted that the city was “exploring” the use of Hart Island, a small island northeast of New York City in Long Island Sound for the burials. There is already a cemetery located on the island.
We are NOT currently planning to use local parks as burial grounds. We are exploring using Hart Island for temporary burials, if the need grows. https://t.co/LfgGjULjh8
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