New York considering temporary mass graves for virus victims
This contingency plan suggests temporarily burying the dead on public land
New York City officials are considering to make mass graves for the virus victims, in case the death toll exceeds the capacity of morgues available in the city, reports New York Times.
This contingency plan suggests temporarily burying the dead on public land.
NY City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that the city would consider temporary burials if the deaths from the coronavirus outbreak exceed the space available in city and hospital morgues, but it had not reached that point.
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"It's going to be very tough but we have the capacity," the mayor said at a news conference at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
"If we need to do temporary burials to be able to tide us over to pass the crisis, and then work with each family on their appropriate arrangements, we have the ability to do that," he said, adding, "We may well be dealing with temporary burials so we can deal with each family later."
Earlier on Monday, the chairman of the City Council health committee, Mark D. Levine, a Manhattan Democrat, had sparked an uproar among city residents when he said on Twitter the that the office of the chief medical examiner was looking into creating temporary mass graves in a public park.
The mayor firmly denied there were plans to use a park as a temporary grave site. His press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, said that if such a step became necessary, the city would bury people on Hart Island in the Bronx.
