Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://ewn.co.za/2021/01/26/south-africa-turns-to-temporary-morgues-as-covid-19-deaths-soar
South Africa turns to temporary morgues as COVID-19 deaths soar
South Africa is the continent's worst-hit country in the pandemic, with more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and 40,800 deaths.
AFP | about 8 hours ago
JOHANNESBURG - The cold hits you first. Then comes the smell.
Inside a refrigerated shipping container are 17 plastic-wrapped corpses, each bearing a yellow label reading "highly contagious."
The 12-metre (40-foot) steel box has been installed at a Johannesburg morgue to help it cope with a rising tide of COVID-19 deaths.
The container can store up to 40 corpses, keeping them at a constant zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
"We have seen an increase of around 40 percent (in corpses) across the country," said spokesman Marius du Plessis of AVBOB, a leading funeral and burial service provider in the country.
South Africa is the continent's worst-hit country in the pandemic, with more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and 40,800 deaths.
It was already struggling to beat back infections when they surged to unprecedented levels this month after scientists detected a new virus variant widely believed to be more contagious.
To help store the influx of bodies - and ensure COVID-19 victims are separated from others - AVBOB has distributed 22 containers normally used for transporting goods to its 250 South African morgues.
QUICK TURNOVER
At a funeral home in the administrative capital Pretoria, an undertaker ties a third layer of plastic around a corpse sent that morning from a coronavirus hospital ward...
South Africa turns to temporary morgues as COVID-19 deaths soar
South Africa is the continent's worst-hit country in the pandemic, with more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and 40,800 deaths.
AFP | about 8 hours ago
JOHANNESBURG - The cold hits you first. Then comes the smell.
Inside a refrigerated shipping container are 17 plastic-wrapped corpses, each bearing a yellow label reading "highly contagious."
The 12-metre (40-foot) steel box has been installed at a Johannesburg morgue to help it cope with a rising tide of COVID-19 deaths.
The container can store up to 40 corpses, keeping them at a constant zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
"We have seen an increase of around 40 percent (in corpses) across the country," said spokesman Marius du Plessis of AVBOB, a leading funeral and burial service provider in the country.
South Africa is the continent's worst-hit country in the pandemic, with more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and 40,800 deaths.
It was already struggling to beat back infections when they surged to unprecedented levels this month after scientists detected a new virus variant widely believed to be more contagious.
To help store the influx of bodies - and ensure COVID-19 victims are separated from others - AVBOB has distributed 22 containers normally used for transporting goods to its 250 South African morgues.
QUICK TURNOVER
At a funeral home in the administrative capital Pretoria, an undertaker ties a third layer of plastic around a corpse sent that morning from a coronavirus hospital ward...