Coffins of coronavirus victims were whisked away on a fleet of army trucks last night after a cemetery in northern Italy was overwhelmed by the death toll.
The column of army trucks brought the dead out of Bergamo on Wednesday night in what Italians have called ‘one of the saddest photos in the history of our country’.
The cemetery in Bergamo can no longer cope with the mounting death toll in the city, where more than 4,300 people have been infected and at least 93 have died.
Mortuaries are full and crematorium staff have been handling 24 bodies a day, including the regular drumbeat of non-virus deaths, meaning the bodies of virus victims have had to be dispatched to neighbouring provinces.
No comment necessary.
“…at least 93 have died.”
Wait, so an additional 93 bodies so far has caused this kind of a backup in crematoriums? That was all it took for a caravan like this to be necessary? They were overwhelmed by the death toll of 93? I’m not making light of the recently deceased, but this seems like it might be purposely melodramatic.
People are dying of other things as well, so these are above and beyond the normal demand. Plus, I’m not sure how common cremation is in Italy — it’s a largely Catholic country, so I would have guessed that most people are buried, so there may not be much crematory capacity anyway.
So they are cremating the 93 bodies of the victims of this virus? This is a corona virus, not Ebola.
Something doesn’t add up here.
The numbers are totally nuts. I looked up the population of Bergamo (122,000 says Wikipedia) and the death rate in that region in normal times (9.9 per thousand). So that means the normal death rate in town is 1200 per year, or 100 per month.
Given that, 93 more deaths in a fairly short period of time is indeed a rather significant jump — double the usual rate if it happened over the span of one month.
However… the other number quoted (“24 bodies a day”) doesn’t match at all. If that’s accurate, it means an annual rate of 8700, or over 7x the normal rate.
So which of these numbers, if any, is the correct one?
I’m reminded of the fact that we’re dealing with the Italian government, and screwing up is what that government does.
I’m generally not a tin foil hat type of guy, but this stinks. All of it. I have many questions and doubts.
I wonder how many less would have died from the covid 19 virus if they did not have socialized medicine.
When the government declares that if you are over a certain age, they will not treat you for this disease, the body count will rise. There is no other outcome.