Struggling under a massive daily influx of coronavirus patients and one of the most staggeringly high COVID-19 death counts in the country, New York City officials may soon begin “temporarily” burying coronavirus victims in mass graves in public parks, per city officials.
Yes, you read that right. Mass graves, in public parks.
According to Democratic NYC Councilman Mark Levine, the city is likely to start temporarily interning bodies in local parks in groupings of 10 caskets, because morgues are filling up too fast for the city to handle and funerals are nearly impossible to hold given the city’s social-distancing and shelter-in-place mandates.
“Still the number of bodies continues to increase. The freezers at OCME facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn will soon be full,” Levine said in a tweetstorm Monday.
“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,” he explained, adding, “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.”
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about the possibility of temporarily interning the dead in parks during a press conference Monday morning, where he confirmed that’s a real possibility.
“We may well be dealing with temporary burials, so we can deal with each family later,” de Blasio confirmed.