If New York is overwhelmed with deaths from the coronavirus, prisoners will dig mass graves.
The Daily Beast reports New York City has a worst-case scenario contingency plan for a plague, such as the coronavirus COVID-19, that would require Rikers Island inmates to dig mass graves for burying up to 51,000 bodies. The plan was drawn up in 2008 by the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner while Michael Bloomberg was mayor of NYC.
According to the Daily Mail, the plan comes from a report preparing for a pandemic where up to 70 percent of deaths would occur in hospitals or assisted living centers, overwhelming morgues. The city would then deploy death professionals like morticians, forensic photographers, and medical students to remove between 50 and 5,000 cadavers a day, such as to mobile refrigerated storage units that can hold up to 44 bodies each.
Disposing of larger numbers of bodies may require cremation or, as a last resort, sending corpses to Hart Island in the Long Island Sound. Inmates from nearby Rikers Island would then be required to dig mass graves and bury them.
The CDC and World Health Organization have not declared coronavirus a pandemic, but the virus has infected more than 113,000 people worldwide and killed more than than 4,000. According to The New York Times, at least 730 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the U.S., including more than 140 in New York state; Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on Saturday.
Cuomo said Monday that he already plans to use prison inmates to make hand sanitizer. CorCraft, a company that uses NYS prison labor paid between 16 cents and $1.14 an hour, will produce 100,000 gallons a week of New York-branded hand sanitizer, and distribute it to government offices and schools free of charge.
In New York City, more changes could come in response to the virus, such as school closings and travel recommendations. Gov. Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and MTA chairman Pat Foye have already said commuters should avoid taking mass transit if other transportation options are available.
“If you can get around without riding the subway, do it," Foye said, according to the New York Post. He said the trains are safe, but recommended alternatives like telecommuting, biking, walking or taking transit at less-crowded times of day.
Source: Syracuse.com
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