New York City has contingency plans on temporarily burying victims of the Chinese coronavirus in a park as the city struggles to handle the spike of dead bodies overwhelming morgues and cemeteries, according to a local lawmaker.
On Monday morning, New York City Councilmember Mark Levine shared details of the plan on social media, warning that the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is “now dealing with the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11.”
“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,” explained Levine. “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.”
Grieving families report calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones.
Cemeteries are not able to handle the number of burial requests and are turning most down. 4/
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 6, 2020
“Grieving families report calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones,” he added. “Cemeteries are not able to handle the number of burial requests and are turning most down.”
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.
OCME is going to need much more staff to achieve that goal. 10/
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 6, 2020
Levine then revealed that New York City will likely use a park for “temporary interment” in order to avoid the grim scenes out of Italy. Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line, he said.
Levin later clarified that this idea is only a contingency plan.
This tweet has gotten a lot of attention. So I want to clarify: the is a contingency NYC is preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be necessary. https://t.co/6wLO8qWtML
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 6, 2020
In late March, the Department of Homeland Security was notified that New York City’s morgues were nearing capacity, a federal official with knowledge of the matter told Politico.
The announcement comes as New York state continues to lead the nation in coronavirus cases with 122,911 infections reported and 4,161 deaths.
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