As New York's morgues slowly become snowed under by the number of corpses, officials released that they may be resorting to burying other victims of COVID-19 in the Hart Island Potter's field or even in public parks.
With the city death toll climbing to 2,738 and the cases hitting 68,779 which is more than half of the 9/11 bombing's 4,758 fatalities and 130,689 casualties, the officials floated the heart-wrenching option.
In a press briefing at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mayor de Blasio shared that they may do temporary burials right now so that they could deal with each family when the pandemic ends. He added that historically they have used Hart island.
The desolate spit of land is located in the Long Island sound off the Bronx's southeast coast. It is the nation's largest public burial ground as it hosted a Civil War Prison Camp and a colony of tuberculosis patient. In the 1980s, it served as a resting place for thousands of HIV/AIDS victims who were abandoned by their families and resulted to not having proper burials.
Loath to publicly discuss how New York will handle the extreme body count, Mayor de Blasio faced the dreadful reality after Mark Levine, city Councilman raised an even more dire possibility.
Prior to de Blasio's remarks, Manhattan Democrat tweeted that they will soon start temporary interment and will be done using NYC park for burials wherein they will be digging trenches for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in an orderly, dignified and temporary manner even if it will be tough for New Yorkers to take.
A Contingency Plan
Council's Health Committee chair, Levine clarified in a later tweet that the conversion of parks to makeshift cemeteries was a contingency plan and the City Hall released that it will not be happening for now.
Despite hundreds of New Yorkers still dying, Gov. Cuomo again voiced guarded optimism after a record of 630 deaths were tallied Saturday, the number fell to 594 on Sunday and stayed with 599 on Monday.
As the flattening of the curve continues, it is better than the increases that they have seen, Cuomo added.
Cuomo's longtime aide Dr. Jim Malatras agreed that the state may be turning a corner and suggests that they are potentially at the apex. But he cautioned that this is far from over as he pointed out that it looks like they are towards the earlier side of the projection.
Easing the pressure on Cuomo, President Donald Trump granted Cuomo's request on Monday for the hospital ship USNS to dock along Manhattan's West Side so it can take on coronavirus patients.
Originally reserved for non-coronavirus patients, it is a welcome relief for Cuomo for the vessel can hold at least 1,000 patients looking at its bed capacity.
