Posted on 02/04/2020 8:00:29 PM PST by familyop
Workers at crematoriums in Wuhan City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, say their workload has increased dramatically in recent days, as they constantly transfer the bodies of victims from hospitals and private homes.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, a worker described long working hours to cope with the sudden increase in bodies to be cremated.
Meanwhile, videos from workers dealing with the crisis have been circulating on social media, including one from a worker at a Wuhan funeral home who shared footage of more than 10 bodies lying on gurneys, lined up for cremation.
Some netizens also shared videos they shot within different hospitals in Wuhan, showing bodies waiting to be transferred from the hospitals to funeral homes.
Since funeral home workers don’t know for sure whether the person died from the coronavirus, they wear protective suits and masks in order to defend themselves from potential infection.
Working 24/7 Wuhan has three main funeral homes in the downtown area, which are equipped with crematoriums. While cremation is a common burial practice in China, in a notice issued on Feb. 1, China’s National Health Commission said that people who have died from the virus can’t be buried and their bodies should be cremated immediately.
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan’s Civil Affairs Bureau designated the Hankou Funeral Home to deal with the bodies of those who were diagnosed and died of the virus, according to state-run media. In addition, the Wuchang Funeral Home and Qingshan Funeral Home were designated to attend to those who died from severe pneumonia, or who were suspected coronavirus cases and died.
A worker at a Wuhan crematorium said in a Feb. 4 interview that he and his colleagues have worked 24 hours, seven days a week since Jan. 28. He said they are exhausted, and are working without proper equipment such as body bags, protective suits, and face masks.
“Since Jan. 28, 90 percent of our employees are working 24/7 … we couldn’t go back home,” a man identified as Mr. Yun told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in a phone call. He works at the Caidian Funeral Home, one of four facilities in a suburban area of Wuhan.
“We really need more manpower,” he said.
Meanwhile, more bodies continue to arrive every day.
“We need to pick up bodies when they [hospitals, communities, or family members of the deceased] call us. Every day, we need at least 100 body bags,” he said.
His workplace is required to pick up bodies from the Wuhan Tongji Hospital, Wuhan No. 13 Hospital, the newly built Huoshenshan Hospital, and other small hospitals, as well as any residences that request its services.
Yun says he’s spoken with workers at other Wuhan funeral homes, who are also overwhelmed.
“Almost all staff at each funeral home in Wuhan are fully equipped, and all Wuhan cremation chambers are working 24 hours,” he said.
The worker said staff can only sit on their chairs and nap whenever they get a chance.
“We can’t stop because we can’t leave the bodies outside for a long time,” he said.
The staff members also lack protective gear.
“For us who transfer the bodies, we don’t eat or drink for a long time in order to preserve the protective suit, because we need to take off the protective suit whenever we eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. The protective suit can’t be worn again after being used,” he said.
Yun said other staff at the funeral home, such as the receptionists, don’t get to use protective suits.
“They wear raincoats to protect themselves,” he said.
Families Yun says he’s heartbroken to see so many bodies and to know that many family members couldn’t see their loved ones in their final moment.
“We pick up bodies from people’s houses. … Family members can’t see the body after we remove it,” he said.
According to new government regulations, funeral home staff pick up the bodies, then cremate them without notifying family members—so that the family can avoid contact with the body and potentially become infected with the virus.
“When family members come here, they can pay the cremation costs and then pick up the ashes,” Yun said.
At hospitals, family members also are prohibited from seeing the bodies.
Some of the deceased had hospital records, but many do not—because they could not receive prompt hospital treatment before their deaths or died waiting, he said.
“Those are treated as unknown reason [for cause of death],” Yun said.
Wuchang Funeral Home Guyu Lab, an independent online news outlet, interviewed a worker at the Wuchang funeral home who was asked to pick up bodies from hospitals and residences, beginning Jan. 26.
“All male staff at our funeral home are picking up and moving bodies now, and female staff are answering the phones, disinfecting the funeral home, and so on,” Huang told the news outlet in a Feb. 3 report. “We work 24 hours. … We are very tired.”
Huang said his funeral home doesn’t have the equipment to properly disinfect the facility. Workers have to reuse disposable protective suits, as there are no new ones. They wear swim goggles because they don’t have protective goggles, and must wear two layers of disposable plastic gloves because they have no rubber gloves.
“We are on the verge of collapsing. We really need help,” Huang said.
At least its only 100 per day.
The Epoch Times is first rate. I am a subscriber.
Lol
Thanks for the word on the Epoch Times.
It would have to be several orders of magnitude worse than reported to strain the crematoriums in Wuhan, a city of 11M people. Absent of any abnormal conditions, like an outbreak of disease, Wuhan likely sees about 250 deaths every day.
Epoch Times is a pretty good news source, particularly in Asia, but I hope they are wrong here.
How many are dying not from CoronaV but from lack of medical care for other illness/conditions due to the hospitals being besieged by flu victims?
You’re welcome. I mentioned to someone that they’re first rate.
I see it was you that I’d mentioned to that they’re first rate. I’m up way past bed time.
For Wuhan, I think you need to consider, a) 5M left Wuhan between the announcement of lockdown and lockdown (1 wk to go home); b) The night before the lockdown, count another half a mill. These are the wealthy/middleclass getting out of Dodge; c) workers returning to Guanggang from Wuhan was 3/4MM. Basically the middle/wealthy classes fled to airports or other provinces and the rest went home for the holidays. We don’t know how many of 1MM students got out but they’re not included in the pop probably and none are sick so leave them out. Which brings the number to around 6.3MM actual left in the city. Then calculate any increase in the rate of cremations from Wuhan on a ‘normal day’, it might be a clearer pix?
Viruses are tough. Is the PROCESS of cremation killing the virus or spreading it?
Every day, we need at least 100 body bags,” he said.
That is for one of three funeral homes. Multiply by three and you get 300 per day, 2,100 per week.
The Commies are reporting only around 500 dead TOTAL. So their lie is at least an order of magnitude. There must be many thousands dead.
100 body bags the article said.
If Uncle Lee died of a heart attack, does that warrant a body bag though? I can’t believe that a body bag is used for every death in the city during a average day, they put them on a gurney, wrap them in a sheet, and drive them to the funeral home to be processed.
Body bags are expensive and a one-use item, why would they put someone in one for transportation. No one does that anywhere in the world I’m aware of except in situations where the processing time and it’s deemed necessary, like a body containing a viral pathogen that is highly contagious that may leak fluids.
It happens every day in the US. How do you think funeral homes transport bodies. Do you want the leaking mess coming out of dead bodies all over the back of your hearse. Sheets don’t cut it.
This isn’t Somalia..
thanks
100 per day *per funeral home*!
That sounds like 400+ per day to me!
Quarantining tens of millions of people, and digging up the roads convinced me 2 weeks ago this wasn’t ‘just the flu’.
If this reflects a higher count, it will eventually catch up to the Chinese government. Maybe the quick closer by the US was in recognition of the reality of much higher mortality.
https://nypost.com/2020/01/27/five-million-residents-left-wuhan-before-coronavirus-lockdown-mayor-reports/
"Mayor Zhou Xianwang said about 9 million people remained in the city after the lockdown was imposed Thursday" [Jan 23]
"Ma Xiaowei, who heads the National Health Commission, told a press conference that battling the outbreak was complicated, particularly after it was discovered that the coronavirus could be transmitted even during its incubation period of one to 14 days."
So there are still around 9 million left in Wuhan. The five million that left was likely from the total metropolitan area around Wuhan. Plus the average is not constant, there are times of year when people are more likely to pass away. The bodies are being cremated, not buried, so other forms of burial are not being used, making the crematoriums really busy.
For now, I think the numbers coming out of China are accurate. The long term problem is while the Coronavirus is less lethal than SARs, it is much more infectious. This makes containing it much harder, means it will be around longer before it is contained, and a lot more people are going to die before this is over.
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