Coronavirus: New York city officials considering mass grave in public park

Amid the increasing rate of coronavirus related deaths across the US, officials in New York City have reportedly laid contingency plans to temporality bury people in parks and other public lands. This comes as the state of New York has reported 4,758 deaths from infection and there are speculations that the number of dead might surpass the capacity of morgues soon.

Merely a contingency plan

Previously, the chairman of City Council Health Committee, Mark Levine reportedly received backlash after he announced that the office of the chief medical examiner was considering public parks for temporary burials. However, New York City mayor Bill de Balasio denied that there were plans to use a park as a temporary grave situation adding that if the need arises people would be buried in Hart Island in the Bronx.

Meanwhile, NY governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly said that he had heard nothing about burying people in parks and dismissed as it as rumours. Later, Levine also backtracked from his comments and asserted that no burial would take place in parks.  Taking a final stance on the issue, the councilmen asserted that what Levine described was just a contingency plan and it would not be necessary in case of the death rate dropped.

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Meanwhile, Balasio on April 6 said it would soon consider temporary burials if the death exceeds the burial space in the city and hospital morgues. He reportedly said that they had the ability to do temporary burials to overcome the difficult situation and then deal with each family individually. This comes as last week, 45 new refrigerated trailers were rushed to hospitals around the city as in house morgues filled up pointing at the problem of disposing of dead bodies. The United States of America has reported over 10,000 deaths as of now. 

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