Amid the recent surge in the number of corona19 infections in China, satellite images have captured images of cars and waiting lines around crematoriums in major cities.
On the 9th, the Washington Post (WP) analyzed satellite images taken of crematoriums and funeral homes in China and reported that crematoriums were saturated due to the rapid increase in local Corona 19 deaths.
WP compared and presented satellite photos taken by Maxa Technology on the 6th and 24th of last month of six crematoriums in China’s representative cities, including Beijing, Kunming, Nanjing and Chengdu.
Unlike the quiet state on the 6th of last month, before the Chinese authorities eased quarantine regulations, looking at the photos on the 24th of the same month, people and vehicle activity around the crematorium increased noticeably, and you can also see vehicles waiting in line.
“Compared to similar times in the past few years, traffic has increased at many funeral and crematoriums in Chinese cities in recent months,” said Stephen Wood, senior director of Maxar Technologies.
A receptionist at a funeral home in Guizhou Province in southwest China said they had processed 250 corpses each day in the last two weeks of December, more than twice the daily peak before COVID-19 quarantine measures.
The morgues are all full and the incinerators are operating 24 hours a day, he added.
Jin-mo, 29, who used a funeral home in Nanjing, said he waited a full day before moving his grandfather’s body to the crematorium.
The video, which Jin uploaded and then deleted on social media, showed a long line of vans and plumes of smoke filling the sky above the crematorium.
The WP said that in another video shared by Jin, vans lined up on the road more than 300 meters away from the facility.
“The truck driver said, ‘I’ve been doing this for decades, but I’ve never seen a situation like this,'” Jin said. “It’s really sad.”
A funeral home in Chengdu has stopped providing funeral services along with cremation, allowing the bereaved only two minutes to say goodbye before cremating the body.
In addition, as the crematorium was crowded, the WP reported that there was even a case of using it to settle down in advance and then selling it back to the bereaved family.
The WP pointed out that this series of appearances shows that the number of deaths from Corona 19 in China is far higher than government statistics.
According to this newspaper, the Chinese government has not bent its claim that the number of deaths from Corona 19 in China has been less than 40 since December 7, when various quarantine regulations were lifted.
In the meantime, Chinese quarantine authorities have classified and announced deaths from pneumonia and respiratory failure as Corona 19 deaths, but when criticism that these statistics were different from reality intensified, the announcement of related statistics was stopped at the end of last month.
Experts estimate that China’s actual death toll from COVID-19 is close to 5,000 a day.
Some predict that the number of deaths from Corona 19 this year will exceed 1 million, WP said.
YTN Lim Soo-geun (sglim@ytn.co.kr)
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