Refrigerated trailers are seen parked at the site of a makeshift morgue being built in New York, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York City could start burying its dead in city parks if the mortality rate from coronavirus doesn’t decline soon, according to City Council Health Committee Chair Mark Levine.
“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,” Levine tweeted on Monday, adding that “it will be tough for NYers to take.”
Just as the number of COVID-19 infections has overwhelmed New York City hospitals, the number of deaths has begun to overwhelm the death care infrastructure, including the city’s system of morgues and now, it would seem, cemeteries. To supplement existing city- and hospital-owned morgues, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) purchased 45 refrigerated trucks to act as temporary morgues on top of 85 supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). According to Levine, most of those temporary morgues are now full and families with loved ones who have passed away due to COVID-19 are struggling to find funeral homes and cemeteries that will handle their deceased.
“Grieving families report calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones. Cemeteries are not able to handle the number of burial requests and are turning most down,” he wrote.
The councilmember’s comments attracted quite a bit of attention on Monday, earning more than 1,500 retweets and 1,800 likes, prompting Levine to clarify his earlier claims. In a later tweet, he called interment in city parks a “contingency” that wouldn’t be necessary if the death rate drops enough.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the New York Times that although the city has the ability to temporarily bury the dead if needed, the city was “not at the point that we’re going to go into that.” Cuomo pleaded ignorance of the plan altogether, saying that he’d heard “a lot of wild rumors,” but never anything about burials in city parks, according to the Times.
Aja Worthy-Davis, an OCME spokesperson, said the city is only conducting city burials at Hart Island in the Bronx for now.
Reports out of overwhelmed countries like Italy and Ecuador detail coffins awaiting burial in churches and on streets, and horror stories of families living with deceased loved ones, sometimes for days, because of an overwhelmed death care system.
“The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets,” Levine wrote on Monday.
A CDC advisory committee as unanimously voted to recommend the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11. Dr. Amesh Adalja, Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
On this episode of ChedHER: Author of 'JUMP: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life,' breaks down the different types of career 'jumps' out there, and keys to making a career change a success; Head of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs at JPMorgan Chase discusses how she's forging a path forward for the API community; CEO and Founder of Diversability explains how she's building up a global movement to rebrand disability through the power of community.
Cheddar sits down with Vivian Young, Head of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs at JPMorgan Chase, at JPMorgan Chase's Women on the Move Leadership Day to discuss her experience being the first person to hold this type of position at the firm, and how she's forging a path forward for the API community.
Cheddar sits down with Tiffany Yu, CEO and Founder of Diversability, at JPMorgan Chase's Women on the Move Leadership Day to discuss how she's building up a global movement to rebrand disability through the power of community.
Kim Perell, Author of 'JUMP: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life,' joins ChedHER to discuss the different types of career 'jumps' out there, and the keys to making a career change a success.
A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
The largest car search platform in India, Cardekho, recently raised $250 million in what the company calls a pre-IPO round led by leapfrog investments. The funding bumps CarDekho above unicorn status with a $1.2 billion valuation. The company currently has a catalogue of more than 3,000 pre-owned cars for online purchases and hopes to expand with the new funding. Partner and co-head of South Asian investment for LeapFrog Stewart Langdon joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Actor Jade Wu joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to discuss her role in the recently premiered film "Snakehead" and its depiction of organized crime in New York City's Chinatown. Wu also talked about the iconic place becoming its own character in the film and what it meant to shoot scenes on location. Discussing her career, she noted the significance of being part of a nearly all-Asian cast compared to often being the lone Asian actor on projects.
