Workers at a German crematorium use their coffins to pile on top of each other while the country battles a new increase in coronavirus deaths during an intense second wave of the pandemic.
The city of Crematorium Meissen, in the eastern state of Saxony, began to feel the impact in November, while coronavirus-related deaths began to increase at an unexpected rate, according to crematorium manager Joerg Schaldach.
“We currently have many cases of coronavirus, which is extremely uncommon,” Schaldach said.
“We have twice as many deaths as before. Of course, people also die from other causes such as heart failure and circulatory failure, but those who die from coronavirus are extra and this is a 100 percent increase. In fact, the death toll has doubled. ”
The crematorium has a dozen workers who usually work a two-shift system from Monday to Friday. Now the employees need to put in more time, Schaldach said.
“We work 24 hours a day from Monday to Sunday,” he said. “In this way we can deal with the dead and cremate them as soon as possible.”
People are no longer allowed to visit their loved ones in the hospital, ‘and you can no longer hold their hand when they die,’ ‘Schaldach said.
“All you get is a call: ‘deceased,'” he added. A farewell at the coffin is not possible. All you get is an urn. This is the problem that the next of kin face, they have to deal with their sadness. It is a very, very difficult process for people to send down a loved one and get the person back in an urn. ”
In total, Germany has seen more than 2 million cases of coronavirus and 45,000 deaths since the onset of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to Ute Czeschka, city councilor, Saxony did not make the first wave.
“I think we barely had a first wave in Saxony,” Czeschka said.
‘There were rare coronavirus cases from March to summer, and people got used to it. This is how we started in the fall and winter season. People did not experience it first hand and so they were relaxed. Eventually we were overwhelmed by this wave. ”
With Post threads