BEIJING CREMATORIUMS STRAIN AMID CORONAVIRUS WAVE
BEIJING—Workers at Beijing crematoriums said Friday they were being overwhelmed as China faces a surge in COVID cases that authorities warn could hit its underdeveloped rural hinterland during upcoming public holidays.
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across China after three years of strict containment measures ended last week, with health authorities now admitting the true scale of the outbreak is “impossible” to track.
China’s top COVID response body on Friday urged local governments to step up monitoring and treatment services for people returning to rural hometowns to visit family for upcoming New Year’s Day and Lunar New Year celebrations.
Two Beijing funeral homes
contacted by AFP confirmed they were operating 24 hours a day and offering same-day cremation services to keep up with a recent surge in demand, despite official data registering no new COVID deaths since Dec. 4.
“We’re being worked to the
bone! Over 10 of our 60 staff are positive (for COVID) but we have no choice, it’s been so busy lately,” one crematorium staffer told AFP.
“We are cremating 20 bodies a day, mostly old people. A lot of people have been getting sick recently.”
Another Beijing crematorium told AFP that there was a weeklong waiting list for a spot.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong estimated China could experience about a million COVID deaths this winter without timely intervention such as fourthdose booster vaccinations and social restrictions.
China has only reported nine official deaths from COVID since mid-November, despite logging more than 10,000 daily infections since then.
On Friday, media reported the deaths of two veteran Chinese state journalists from COVID-19 in the capital Beijing, among the first reported deaths since the government abandoned its strict “zero-COVID” policy of curbs and lockdowns.