Beijing: Satellite images of several cities in China have captured crowds at cremation grounds and crematoriums covid surge The Washington Post reported that nationwide after Beijing lifted severe pandemic restrictions. An overwhelmed funeral home in Chengdu, China, has stopped memorial services by budgeting just two minutes for each family to say goodbye to their loved ones before the funeral. A funeral parlor on the outskirts of Beijing quickly cleared space for a new parking lot. According to a Washington Post report, scalpers in Shanghai lined up places at cremation grounds to sell for US$300 a pop.
Surge in activity at funeral homes in Chinese cities, satellite images show
Imagery captured by Maxar Technologies showed an increase in activity at funeral homes in six different cities, from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the east, to Chengdu and Kunming in the southwest. “I’ve worked here for six years and it’s never been so busy,” said a receptionist at Jiangnan Funeral Home in Chongqing, southwest China. Lines of cars waiting to get into the facility in the days just before and after Christmas.
“The freezers were full and all eight incinerators were operating 24/7. The phone basically hasn’t stopped ringing,” she said.
Such is the demand that at least four funeral homes contacted by The Washington Post have stopped allowing memorial services and are now only offering cremation services and storage, a sign that waiting times at these facilities are increasing. Most of those attending were to process recently deceased loved ones.
Exclusive: Satellite imagery and newly verified footage show packed cremation grounds across China as Covid surges – suggesting the country’s death toll is far higher than the government says. https://t.co/nVEyurTFIH
— Samuel Oakford (@samueloakford) January 9, 2023
Consequences of ending the ‘Zero-Covid’ approach
China recently moved away from its strict ‘Zero Covid’ approach that sparked mass unrest after more than two years of tight controls on citizens’ personal lives.
China’s strict policy shielded its population from the mass deaths seen in Western countries – a contrast repeatedly prompted by the Communist Party to show the perceived superiority of its sanctions.
China refuses to reveal death toll after Covid restrictions are lifted
The Chinese government continues to insist that fewer than 40 people have died of COVID in China since December 7, when the ‘zero COVID’ restrictions aimed at eradicating the virus were abruptly lifted was given and infection numbers exploded. How Chinese officials count Covid deaths has been a matter of controversy since the beginning of the pandemic. The Washington Post reported that since December, only people who died of respiratory failure have been included in the official count, regardless of whether they tested positive for the virus.
Chinese health officials have tried to reassure the public by citing the Omicron variant’s low mortality rate, 0.1 percent. Officially, just over 5,200 people have died of COVID in China since the start of the pandemic.
However, estimates by international experts put the actual death toll closer to 5,000 people each day, with several models predicting more than 1 million Covid deaths in China in 2023, The Washington Post reported.