Due to a new wave of coronavirus in the country, the crematoria could not cope; the locals burn the bodies themselves.
China has been hit by a new wave of the coronavirus. Authorities said the death toll from COVID-19 is rising but within the normal range for the country. The Chinese, on the other hand, are reporting on social media about the dire consequences of the current outbreak of the disease. According to them, hospitals and funeral homes were overwhelmed, and families began to burn the bodies of their loved ones in the streets, because they could live with the deceased for several weeks.
Due to the discrepancy between the statements of Chinese officials assessing the COVID situation and footage from social media, the country’s police have imposed a ban on the distribution of photos and videos about the coronavirus in the country.
What is the situation in China with COVID-19 and dying from the infection? Correspondent.net.
real picture
Note that in China, the dead from the coronavirus must be cremated. Due to the new outbreak, the crematoria cannot cope with the increased workload. According to Bloomberg, authorities in the Longhua district of the Chinese city of Shenzhen said over the weekend that the local crematoria had received more than 500 bodies for cremation, five times higher than the usual load.
The same is observed in other cities. Shanghai residents said the body of an elderly woman was at home for five days before a morgue came for her.
“We’re lucky it’s a cold winter,” said a relative.
The cost of a cremation in Shanghai has risen to $4,350 and funeral homes have imposed a 5-10 minute limit on families to mourn their dead relatives.
“The whole system is paralyzed,” said a local crematorium worker, adding that people could not cope with the load.
Videos began to appear on Twitter of impromptu cremations taking place in the streets. In the first video, you can see a burning wooden coffin. The video was shot in the countryside.
I have seen many similar videos, but I have not posted anything until now. Because of what we have learned from other sources about how difficult and expensive it is to cremate a body in a #crematorium in #CCP ChinaI am no longer surprised if someone in the countryside chose to do this.#ChinaCovidDeaths pic.twitter.com/hxhGdhPriS
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) January 3, 2023
Another video, believed to have been shot in Shanghai, shows a group of people gathered around a makeshift fire.
#CHINA: The #Covid an outbreak reportedly forced people to burn the bodies of their family members in the streets as a result of emergency services and the inability of crematoriums to accommodate the mass numbers of the dead. Heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/Q5TYcG5VJG
— Igor Sushko (@igorushko) January 3, 2023
A video was posted on Chinese social media Weibo showing queues at a funeral home, with one user saying dozens of people had been queuing since 2 am
The demand for funeral services was so high that people started lining up even at the crematoria.
Mortality in the “normal” range
A senior Chinese health official said deaths from the latest spike in COVID-19 cases were “increasing” but within the normal range of mortality.
In an interview with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), Jiao Yahui, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, said: “Compared to the rest of the world, the peaks of infection we are experiencing across the country are unusual,” he added.
The “normal” mortality rate is the number of deaths that authorities expect in a given period, based on long-term population data. Excess deaths show the difference between the number of deaths caused by the current wave of COVID and the number of deaths expected in the absence of the pandemic. Excess death counts have been used around the world during the pandemic to better understand how many people have died from COVID.
Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital, agreed that while the actual death toll is rising, the deaths still make up a small percentage of China’s population.
At the same time, CCTV reports say that the number of outpatients with fever in some hospitals has increased tenfold, and that one doctor saw up to 150 patients in one night. But a patient with fever is not considered a COVID patient because PCR testing is no longer mandatory in China.
What is the forecast?
The total number of coronavirus deaths since December remains a mystery, as officials have only acknowledged a handful of deaths since President Xi Jinping’s administration dramatically revised the zero-COVID policy.
Two unnamed WHO-linked scientists have asked Beijing for a “more realistic picture” of COVID in China. At the same time, experts doubt that China will be frank with its statistics.
Deaths from infectious respiratory diseases are likely to peak around January 23, the second day of Chinese New Year, according to Airfinity. And according to a Bloomberg report, China could see up to 25,000 COVID deaths a day by the end of January.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.