Brazil has been forced to dig up bodies from graves to make room for coronavirus victims as its death toll continues to rise.
The death toll in Brazil currently stands at 42,791 with 851,000 known
cases, surpassing the UK to become the second worst-hit country in the
world after the US.
The country is at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in South
America and deaths in Sao Paulo have hit 5480, making it one of the
worst-hit regions on the continent.
Chilling aerial images recently showed huge mass graves being dug to make room for the dead in the city of 12 million people.
Now the municipal funeral service in Sao Paulo said the remains of those
who died at least three years ago will be exhumed to make more space
for Covid-19 victims.
Grave workers will collect the bones, which will be put in numbered bags
and then put in storage before being delivered to cemeteries within in
the next 15 days.
In a statement, officials said the bones will be put in public
ossuaries. An ossuary is building, well, or site made to serve as the
final resting place of human skeletal remains.
A grave digger at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paolo said workers at
the site, which is biggest in Latin America, said they are worried as
lockdown continues to be eased.
The cemetery has said 1,654 people were buried at the site in April, 500 more than March.
Grave digger Adenilson Costa said: “With this opening of malls and stores we get even more worried
“We are not in the curve. We are in the peak and people aren’t aware.
“This isn’t over. Now is the worrisome moment. And there are still people out.
Dr Michael Ryan, the World Health Organisation’s emergencies chief, said
on Friday: “Overall the health system is still coping in Brazil,
although, having said that, with the sustained number of severe cases
that remains to be seen.”
