World News | Satellite images show crowded crematoria in China

Beijing [China]Jan. 11 (ANI): Satellite images of many Chinese cities have captured crowds in crematoria and funeral homes after Beijing lifted strict epidemic restrictions, The Washington Post reported.

An overwhelmed funeral home in Chengdu, China, has stopped offering memorial services, and families are limited to two minutes per family to say goodbye to loved ones before cremation.

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A funeral home on the outskirts of Beijing quickly made room for a new parking lot. Scalpers in Shanghai are selling funeral home queues for $300 apiece, giving grieving relatives access to cremations, according to The Washington Post.

Images taken by Maxar Technologies showed an increase in funeral home activity in six different cities, from Beijing in the north, to Nanjing in the east, and to Chengdu and Kunming in the southwest.

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Posts on social media also showed long wait times and staff at extra facilities were overwhelmed.

“I’ve worked here for six years and it’s never been this busy,” said a receptionist at Jiangnan Funeral Home in Chongqing, southwestern China, describing the long line of cars waiting to get into the facility in the days around Christmas.

“The freezers are full, all eight incinerators are running 24/7. The phone is basically ringing,” she said.

At least four funeral homes contacted by The Post have stopped offering memorial services and are now offering only cremation services and storage services, suggesting that most of those waiting at those facilities are there dealing with recently deceased relatives.

China recently abandoned its strict “zero-Covid” approach that sparked mass unrest after more than two years of tight controls on citizens’ personal lives.

China’s strict policies protect its people from the kind of mass death seen in Western countries — a contrast that the Communist Party has repeatedly emphasized to illustrate the supposed superiority of its restrictions.

The Chinese government continues to insist that fewer than 40 people have died from the virus in China since Dec. 7, when “zero coronavirus” restrictions aimed at eradicating the virus were abruptly lifted and infections surged.

Exactly how Chinese authorities count Covid deaths has been a bone of contention since the start of the pandemic. Since December, only people who died of respiratory failure have been counted in official counts, regardless of whether they tested positive for the virus, The Washington Post reported.

Chinese health officials have tried to reassure the public by citing the low death rate (0.1%) of the omicron variant. According to official statistics, more than 5,200 people have died from Covid in China since the start of the pandemic.

However, projections from international experts put the actual daily death toll at closer to 5,000, with multiple models predicting more than 1 million deaths from COVID-19 in China in 2023, according to The Washington Post. (Arnie)

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