Video After The Jump
New drone video shows a giant trench being dug at New York City's public cemetery on Hart Island to help handle an influx of unclaimed bodies due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As the death toll mounts in New York, the city's public cemetery has started receiving about the same amount of bodies per day that it used to bury there each week.
Normally, about 25 bodies a week are interred on the island, mostly for people whose families can't afford a funeral, or who go unclaimed by relatives. But recently, burial operations have increased from one day a week to five days a week, with around 24 burials each day, said Department of Correction spokesman Jason Kersten.
The medical examiner's office will only keep bodies for 14 days before they are sent to be buried in the city’s potter’s field on Hart Island in the Bronx.
Aerial images taken Thursday by The Associated Press captured workers digging graves on the island. About 40 caskets were lined up for burial on the island on Thursday, and two fresh trenches have been dug in recent days.
The island may also be used for temporary interments should deaths surge past the city's morgue capacity. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner can store about 800 to 900 bodies, while about 4,000 can be stored in refrigerated trucks dispatched to city hospitals.
Source: NBC News
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