posted with permission.
hat tip to Jason Gale
Stacks of Urns in Wuhan Prompt New Questions of Virus’s Toll
2020-03-27 05:06:05.974 GMT
By Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- The long lines and stacks of ash urns
greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan
are spurring questions about the true scale of coronavirus
casualties at the epicenter of the outbreak, renewing pressure
on a Chinese government struggling to control its containment
narrative.
The families of those who succumbed to the virus in the
central Chinese city, where the disease first emerged in
December, were allowed to pick up their cremated ashes at eight
local funeral homes starting this week. As they did, photos
circulated on Chinese social media of thousands of urns being
ferried in.
Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in about 2,500
urns on both Wednesday and Thursday, according to Chinese media
outlet Caixin. Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500
urns stacked on the ground inside. It’s unclear how many of the
urns had been filled.
People who answered the phone at six of the eight funeral
homes in Wuhan said they either did not have data on how many
urns were waiting to be collected, or were not authorized to
disclose the numbers. Calls were not answered at the other two.
Some families said they had been forced to wait for several
hours to pick up the ashes. The photos circulated as mass deaths
from the virus spiked in cities across the west, including
Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents
to handle the overflow as global infections soar past 500,000,
with 24,000 dead.
According to Chinese government figures, 2,535 people in
Wuhan have died of the virus. The announcement that a lockdown
in place since January would be lifted came after China said its
tally of new cases had hit zero and stepped up diplomatic
outreach to other countries hard hit by the virus, sending some
of them medical supplies.
But some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of
the official tally, particularly given Wuhan’s overwhelmed
medical system, authorities’ attempts to cover up the outbreak
in its initial stages, and multiple revisions to the way
official cases are counted. Residents on social media have
demanded disciplinary action against top Wuhan officials.
China’s Hidden Symptom-Free Virus Cases Means Epidemic Not
Over
Many people who died had Covid-19 symptoms, but weren’t
tested and excluded from the official case tally, Caixin said.
There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a
lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing
with those who had the coronavirus.
There were 56,007 cremations in Wuhan in the fourth quarter
of 2019, according to data from the city’s civil affairs agency.
The number of cremations was 1,583 higher than those in the
fourth quarter of 2018 and 2,231 higher than the fourth quarter
of 2017.
Mourning Restrictions
The families of the deceased may not be able to say a
proper goodbye to their loved ones just yet. Wuhan’s government
issued a statement on Thursday prohibiting individuals in the
city from tomb-sweeping activities until April 30, meaning they
would not be able to observe the traditional April 4 Ching Ming
Festival, or tomb sweeping holiday. Other provinces including
Guangxi and Zhejiang have also announced similar restrictions.
Two locals in Wuhan who have lost family members to the
virus said online that they were informed they had to be
accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood
committees when picking up the urns, likely as a measure against
public gatherings.
“I was told by district government to wait until further
notice on when I can pick up my father’s ashes,” one Wuhan
resident using the name “Xue Zai Shou Zhong,” meaning “snow in
hand,” posted on Weibo. “There is a staggered arrangement for
urn collecting.”
Another Weibo user using the handle Adagier said she lost
her husband to the coronavirus and had since been contacted by
police warning her not to be too emotional -- and to stop
posting online.
“I have only one demand,” she wrote. “I want to give my
husband a proper burial as soon as possible.”
--With assistance from Dandan Li and Claire Che.
