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New York uses mass graves due to the increase in #coronavirus deaths

by Tuitealo

New York has begun burying bodies in a mass grave on the island of Hart, in the extreme northwest of the Big Apple, at a time when there has been a significant increase in deaths from coronavirus in the region. New York authorities confirmed that the island, which for decades has been used to bury unclaimed corpses, will now also include COVID-19 deaths. "People who have died (of coronavirus) are likely to be buried on the island in the coming days," New York Mayor's Press Secretary Freddi Goldstein told the media. The statements come at a time when images have emerged of the burial of several coffins, placed on top of each other, on the island of Hart, and after this Thursday New York recorded 799 deaths from coronavirus in 24 hours, a new daily maximum. Hart Island has been used as the city's public cemetery for over 150 years and is managed by the New York Correctional Department. The bodies of people who have remained in an unclaimed morgue for 30 to 60 days have ended up there, Goldstein explained. The spokeswoman added that the authorities are moving the bodies to this place to have more space for the rest of those killed by coronavirus. With the increase in deaths, he explained, the number of days that an unidentified or unclaimed body can remain in a morgue before being buried on the island of Hart will be 14 days instead of one or two months. "They are people who, for two weeks, have not been able to find anyone who says 'I know this person, I love this person and I want to take care of his burial,'" added the mayor's representative. According to Goldstein, about 25 bodies a week are buried on the island under normal circumstances, but since people started dying from the pandemic, 25 have been buried a day. New York State already registers 160,000 infected with coronavirus, a figure that exceeds that of any other country outside the United States, while the number of deceased increases to more than 7,000, of which more than 5,150 lost their lives in the Great Apple.

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