Coronavirus: New York faces ‘gruesome reality’ of burying dead in city parks

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New York City faces the ‘gruesome reality’ that some of the dead from the coronavirus pandemic may have to be temporarily buried in city parks.

City Council health committee chair Mark Levine explained in a series of tweets on Monday morning that due to the number of dead from Covid-19, the city’s morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries were being overwhelmed.

“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 clarified later: “[This] is a contingency NYC is preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be necessary.”

Mr Levine also appealed to the nation for mortuary affairs staff and more resources to manage the number of dead.

He said that the city's healthcare system is being pushed to the limit and so is the system for managing the dead, describing the “city morgue” — the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) — and hospital morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries as dealing with “the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11.”

The grim fact is that the whole system is backed up and the refrigerated trailers drafted in to hospitals are mostly full too.

There are also a large number of people dying at home. Mr Levine states that 20-25 people in New York City died at home each day before the crisis — that number has now risen to 200-215 per day. There is no longer testing capacity to swab those that die at home and so he admits that this almost certainly means there is an undercounting of the total victims.

The goal of a temporary internment strategy is to “avoid scenes likes those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets.”

In terms of increasing staffing levels, the Department of Defence and New York National Guard have already sent teams, and volunteers have come from around the country, but more help is needed.

Mr Levine concludes: “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.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about potential for park burials at a press briefing on Monday morning at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, The New York Post reports.

“We may well be dealing with temporary burials, so we can deal with each family later,” he said. We will have the capacity for temporary burials — that’s all I’m going to say.”

At his daily coronavirus press briefing in Albany, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seemed shocked at the suggestion and said he had not had heard of any such plans, nor of the need for them.

At the briefing the governor revealed that the death toll in New York State now stood at 4,758, up by 599 from Sunday. On Saturday the number increased by 594, so it is hoped that this might signal a flattening of the curve. The number of deaths per day peaked on Friday at 630.

Confirmed cases in New York state stood at 130,689 (up from 122,031), 72,181 in New York City (up from 67,551). The number of hospitalisations and the number admitted to intensive care appear to also be levelling off.