NYC Officials Shut Down Claims They’re Using Parks For Temporary Burials Of COVID-19 Victims
On Monday (Apr 6), NYC Council Health Committee chair Mark Levine claimed that the city would “soon start ‘temporary interment,'” using parks for COVID-19 victims’ burials. Now, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is shutting that down.
In a series of tweets, Levine began, “Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly–and-temporary–manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.” He followed, with a clarification, “[This] is a contingency NYC is preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be necessary.”
RELATED: New York To Temporarily Bury Coronavirus Bodies In Parks
Subsequent to Levine’s posts, the OCME says the idea “was a scenario in the OCME disaster plan, but not something currently being considered or planned for.” Mayor Bill de Blasio also shared that temporary burials were something the city “may well be deal with,” but didn’t explain further.
Furthermore, in the rest of Levine’s tweets, he compared today’s crisis at the city morgue with that of 9/11. He stated, “[The OCME is] dealing w/ the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11. And so are hospital morgues, funeral homes & cemeteries.”
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Currently, there are nearly 130,700 confirmed coronavirus cases in NYC, with over 4,700 deaths as of Monday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/MarkLevineNYC/status/1247181795076046854
A typical hospital morgue might hold 15 bodies. Those are now all full. So OCME has sent out 80 refrigerated trailers to hospitals around the city. Each trailer can hold 100 bodies. These are now mostly full too. Some hospitals have had to add a 2nd or even a 3rd trailer. 3/
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 6, 2020