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Satellite image of a funeral home in Tangshan with numerous cars in the parking lot
Photo: MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / REUTERS
China is apparently feeling the effects of the current unprecedented wave of corona infections more than the political leadership in Beijing officially admits.
Satellite images now support observations that crematoria and funeral homes in some large cities have been working under a massively increased load for days.
As the “Washington Post” and the broadcaster CNN, among others, report with reference to a comparison of the pictures of a funeral home outside of Beijing between the end of December and the beginning of January, a new parking lot was created there.
In the cities of Kunming, Chengdu, Tangshan and Huzhou, queues of waiting cars can also be seen in front of funeral homes.
The reports, according to the media, are consistent with local eyewitness reports that numerous crematoriums and funeral homes are overcrowded.
According to CNN, other makeshift facilities have already been built in Beijing to temporarily store the dead.
»It has never been so crowded«
Families have to wait for days to have their loved ones buried or cremated.
"I've been working here for six years and it's never been so crowded," the Washington Post quoted an employee of a funeral home in Chongqing as saying.
In China, the deceased are often picked up by a undertaker, followed by cremation.
According to the Washington Post, it is not unusual for crematoria to be slightly more busy in winter.
This year, however, the number of deaths is significantly higher than in the same period last year.
According to official information, the number of daily corona deaths is still extremely low.
About 37 deaths have been reported in the country of more than 1.4 billion since December 7, when the country completely lifted its previously strict pandemic measures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the USA accuse China of covering up the extent of the current corona outbreak.
"We continue to call on China to provide faster, regular, reliable data on hospital admissions and deaths," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
According to some projections, 1.7 million people in China could die as part of the massive wave of infections by the end of April.
The German scientist Thorsten Lehr from Saarland University, on the other hand, recently told SPIEGEL that the future course in China is difficult to predict due to the uncertain data situation.
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