The United States is struggling. The nation has converted into the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak in North America. The total positive cases are racing towards the half a million mark, and the death toll is speeding towards 17,000. New York City bears the major brunt, accounting for a fifth of the country’s cases. One of the most iconic cities in the world, NYC has seen over 5,100 deaths, and there are close to 82,000 active cases.
Images have surfaced of coffins being buried in a mass grave in New York City, as the pandemic continues to clutch the city.
The aerial video shows mass graves being excavated and bodies being buried. The footage is from Hart Island, which has usually been used as a potter’s field by NYC.
In recent years, prisoners from the Rikers Island Jail have worked as gravediggers there. Recently, it was reported that inmates were offered far higher than average prison rates to dig burial place. However, with the rise of coronavirus cases, the city has since hired non-prison labourers for the job reports Reuters.
Generally, about 25 bodies a week are buried here, mostly for people whose families can’t afford a funeral or who go unidentified. But now this process has gone too far from one day a week to five days a week, with around 24 burials each day.
According to The New York Times, hospitals and morgues in the city are reaching their size for holding the dead. At the same time, the next of kin are communicated and last rites made. One emergency plan was for provisional burials in mass graves on Hart Island, not just for the poor but for those who could be reburied later.
Recently, the White House publicised estimates that 2.2 million people from the country could die from coronavirus if nothing was done to stop its spread. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus has brought the world to its knees with cases rising over 1.1 million active cases and almost 97,000 dead.
