U.S.
NYC Officials Consider Mass Graves to Cope with Rising Deaths
- Temporary potter’s field burials may be needed, mayor says
- An earlier disaster plan contemplated burials in a catastrophe
Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York on April 6.
Photographer: Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
As New York City’s fatalities from the new coronavirus increase and threaten to overwhelm the city’s capacity to handle the dead, officials have begun to consider resorting to temporary burial sites, just in case.
Such internments would likely be at Hart Island off the Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Councilman Mark Levine had raised the prospect earlier that burials may be done at city parks, but said later Monday that he’s been assured that wouldn’t be the case.