This article was first published on the 29th of April, 2020 by Patrick Carpen.
Last updated: April 29, 2020 at 23:21 pmManaus, Amazonas, Brazil.
April 21st, 2020.
The number of coronavirus deaths in Manaus, Brazil has caused the city of Amazonas to open mass graves in cemeteries to bury the fatal victims of the infection.
In the city, there are mass graves for up to 10 people. A recent (April 21) epidemiological bulletin from the Ministry of Health points out that, throughout the state, 193 casualties caused by the disease have already been recorded. The mortality rate, which is 8.5%, is about two percentage points above the national average.
A video posted on Twitter shows the procedure adopted by the city’s gravediggers during one of the collective burials. Ten coffins are placed side by side in a pit and then covered with soil.
In order to preserve the bodies that could not yet be buried, the Manaus municipal executive installed cold rooms in the cemeteries.
As of the 21st of April, 2020, Amazonas has a total of 2,270 confirmed cases of the disease. According to a survey carried out by UOL, 656 bodies were buried in the city’s cemetery between the 12th and 19th of this month.
Collapsing System
Amazonian public health has 118 beds of intensive care. Last Friday (17), Governor Wilson Lima (PSC even said that all the ICUs in the state were occupied. The declaration was given to Rádio Tiradentes.
Mass graves in the USA
In the middle of April, 2020, a similar expedient was used in New York, in the United States. The local administration had to open mass graves to bury COVID-19 fatal victims. The bodies were deposited on Hart Island, used by the city to bury unidentified bodies, not requested by relatives or whose family members cannot afford a private cemetery.
Source: Caos na saúde faz Manaus abrir valas comuns para enterrar vítimas do coronavírus.
Related: Coronavirus by Country Report.
