A Colombian advertising company divulged hospital beds that can be transformed into coffins as a grim solution for shortages on both items amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
According to NY Daily, ABC Displays, a Colombian company, developed a morbid product which is a cardboard bed with metal railings along the sides. While the Bogota-based business is generally dedicated to marketing, the advertising company has been at a near logjam over the last month as the state remains on lockdown.
Rodolfo Gomez, manager of ABC Displays, said witnessing the health crisis wreak a chaos in nearby Ecuador was enough to motivate him to take action. He added we worked on the designs with a private clinic before he developed the design, which can bear around 330 pounds.
Moreover, Gomez clarified that residents were forced to wait for days at a time with the body of their family or a loved one as the new coronavirus cases continued to rise last month at the coastal city of Guayaquil. He articulated that a lot of people could not afford or find a wood coffin and had to use donated cardboard instead.
Gomez said the design costs around $85 per piece and uttered that poor families could not afford to buy a coffin.
Gomez aimed to contribute 10 of the novel beds to Colombia's Amazonas department, where there are incredibly limited resources. It is not certain whether the beds will be out to use.
As of Saturday, Colombia has reported nearly 9,500 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
Ecuador has recorded more than 28,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and a death toll of 1,700. While Colombia has 10,000 confirmed cases and 428 deaths.
Both are incomparable to the confirmed cases of the United States which leads the world in new coronavirus infections with 1,321,563 reported cases and a death toll of 78,380.
Experts question integrity of product.
At least one expert was skeptical of the sturdiness of the product and advised that any remains should first be placed in a sealed bag to avoid the possibility of spreading the disease before being placed in the cardboard coffin.
In New York City, funeral home workers and officials have also tried to solve the remains of dead Covid-19 patients.
In April, residents in New York were startled when the authority discovered 100 bodies stacked in unrefrigerated trucks outside a funeral home in Brooklyn.
Authorities dispatched to the location after residents complained about the smell for weeks.
On the scene, authorities discovered two unrefrigerated U-Haul box trucks used as storage of the bodies outside of Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Flatlands after residents filmed body bags being dragged into them.
Reportedly, around 50 dead bodies were being stored in each truck as the facility struggled in keeping up with the devastating rise of bodies due to the new coronavirus outbreak.
The owner told to city officials that its freezer malfunctioned and they were forced to utilize the trucks as storage while bodies hold on cremation or burial.
Jay Fredo said in a report that there have been trucks constantly outside unloading bodies for weeks and added that some of the bodies have been dropped. He uttered that what they witnessed was crazy and sick.
No criminal charges were filed against the funeral home but were cited for failing to contain the odors.
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