Italy’s dead overwhelm morgues; death toll tops 8,000

ROME (AFP) — An overwhelmed Italian city at the heart of the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday sent more of its dead to nearby towns for cremation as the country’s world-leading toll topped 8,000.

Officials in Rome reported 662 new deaths and 6,153 infections — largely in line with the figures reported throughout the week. The number of cases increased by 4,492, a slight uptick after four consecutive days in which new cases had decreased. Overall infections, including deaths and recoveries, have risen to 80,539.

Italians appear to be coming to terms with the realization that two weeks of life under lockdown have not made the disease go away.

“Until we see this damn rate drop, we will have to continue making very hard sacrifices,” deputy civil protection service chief Agostino Miozzo said in reference to the ever-tightening containment measures.

Italy’s coronavirus death toll now stands at 8,165 — more than that of secondplaced Spain and China, where the virus emerged in December, combined.

The endless flood of victims forced the city of Bergamo at Italy’s northern epicenter of the pandemic to send still more bodies to less burdened crematoriums in neighboring towns.

Six camouflage green army trucks were seen transporting coffins out of a Bergamo cemetery on Thursday.

“The large number of victims has meant that Bergamo’s crematorium could not cope on its own,” mayor Giorgio Gori said in a statement.

The mayor said the city had also received 113 urns with the ashes of bodies that had been sent out for cremation earlier this week.

The bodies in the city of about 120,000 people are literally piling up.

A warehouse in the commune of Ponte San Pietro on Bergamo’s western outskirts held 35 freshly made wooden coffins Thursday that were destined for cremation at a later date.

Still more coffins filled a barren church hall in the Seriate commune to Bergamo’s east.

A priest said a quiet prayer over the rows of coffins and a single red rose rested atop one in the otherwise empty room.

Yet the Italian government is just as anxious about the northern crisis spilling over into the far less developed south.