A parking security operator and the owner of an urn shop in the funeral home building told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the number of deaths in this period was above average and higher than in the period before most pandemic restrictions were lifted . December 7.
The sick workers have also affected workers at about a dozen funeral parlors in Beijing.
“We have fewer cars and staff now,” an employee at Miyun Funeral Home told Reuters by phone on condition of anonymity. “We have several workers who have tested positive.”
It was not immediately clear whether the struggle to meet the rising demand for cremations was also due to the increase in COVID-related deaths.
An employee said a body at the Huirou funeral home was kept for three days before the funeral.
The employee said, “You can take the body here yourself, it’s been busy lately.”
tracking deaths and cases
China’s health authority last reported COVID deaths on December 3. The Chinese capital last reported a death on 23 November.
Yet respected Chinese news outlet Caixin reported on Friday that two veteran state media journalists had died after contracting COVID-19 in Beijing, in the first known deaths since China ended most of its zero-Covid policies. From.
On Saturday, Caixin reported that a 23-year-old medical student in Sichuan died of COVID on December 14.
Still, the National Health Commission on Saturday reported no change in its official COVID death toll of 5,235 since the epidemic emerged in Wuhan province in late 2019.
Since lifting restrictions earlier this month, China has told its population of 1.4 billion to stay home if they have mild symptoms, as cities across China grapple with the first wave of infections.
Leading Chinese epidemiologist Wu Junyu said on Saturday that by January 3 this year, 250,000 people would have died in China if strict containment policies had been lifted earlier.
As of December 5, the proportion of severe or critically ill COVID patients had dropped to 0.18 percent of reported cases, Wu said, from 3.32 percent last year and 16.47 percent in 2020.