OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) – All three crematoriums operate 24 hours a day, while the storage capacity for coffins has been repeatedly increased.
Despite all efforts, the largest crematorium in the Czech Republic, in the northeastern city of Ostrava, has been overwhelmed by the growing number of pandemic victims.
On Thursday, cars from funeral homes delivered boxes every few minutes, some with ‘COVID’ on them. Today, the crematorium receives more than 100 coffins daily, about double the maximum cremation capacity.
With newly confirmed COVID-19 infections around record highs, it looks like the situation will get worse.
Authorities in Ostrava are accelerating plans to build a fourth furnace, but are seeking help from the government’s central crisis committee to coordinate pandemics.
“This is an extraordinary situation,” said Katerina Sebestova, a deputy mayor of Ostrava. “Nobody here remembers anything like that.” The facility belongs to the Ostrava City Hall.
‘It’s simply because we are 60% more deceased than a year ago. We are therefore dealing with storage capacity and the ability to cremate, ”she said.
Up to 1,000 bodies a month were cremated in Ostrava before the pandemic struck. The number rose to 1,550 in November and 1,570 in December after a surge in late October, said Ivo Furmancik, director of the crematorium.
The Czech Republic was spared the worst of the pandemic in the spring, only to see the health care system collapse in the autumn. It was hit hard again with new infections reaching a record high of 17,668 on Wednesday, a record set for the second consecutive day.
The increase in infections is likely to be followed by an increase in deaths.
“In fact, I expect that the situation will not get better, but that it will unfortunately worsen,” Furmancik said.
The crematorium has built a coolant container to double storage capacity by 60 crates, further enhancing it by adding a few movable freezers for another 100. But the cremation rooms can no longer be expensive.
“For two-and-a-half months, we work continuously without maintenance,” Furmancik said. ‘It is therefore not an optimal situation. How long can it take? I am concerned that the crematoria could be seriously damaged at any time due to this intensive use. ”
The 10.7 million country registered 794,740 confirmed cases and 12,621 deaths. November was the deadliest month with 4,937 deaths.
Ostrava is the capital of the Moravian-Silesian region, which along with another region has the death toll for viruses in the country with about 1,500 deaths.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who heads the Central Crisis Committee, has promised to create a system to distribute bodies to other crematoria across the country, but some have already indicated that they have reached their own limits. .
Another, more difficult option is that we only take the number of the deceased that we can cremate, ‘Furmancik said.
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