Ecuador builds emergency cemeteries due to coronavirus outbreak
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Ecuador’s government is preparing an emergency burial ground on land donated by a private cemetery in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, to address a shortage of burial plots as the novel coronavirus hits the Andean country hard.
As of Tuesday, the country had 3,995 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 220 deaths, with 182 more deaths suspected of being linked to the virus. The outbreak has sparked a shortage of wooden coffins, prompting some people to bury their relatives in cardboard boxes donated by cemeteries.
Large lines of cars carrying coffins waited outside private cemeteries across the city this week, as families waited for hours for a chance to bury their deceased relatives. The outbreak has overwhelmed hospitals and emergency services, with some families keeping dead bodies in their homes for days.
The government, which last week began storing the bodies of coronavirus victims in giant refrigerated containers until graves were prepared, is aiming to bury some 100 people a day at the cemetery in northern Guayaquil, which has the capacity for some 2,000 plots.
The Mayor of Guayaquil has begun to distribute this Sunday to alleviate the shortage of wooden ones, as corpses have been accumulating in streets, morgues and funeral homes as a result of the health emergency caused by COVID-19, in Guayaquil.
