The long lines and stacks of urns greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan, China, are spurring questions about the true scale of casualties at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, renewing pressure on a Chinese government struggling to control its containment narrative.
The families of those who succumbed to the coronavirus in the city, where the disease first emerged, were allowed to pick up their cremated ashes at eight funeral homes last week.
As they did, photographs circulated on Chinese social media of thousands of urns being ferried in.
Photo: AFP
Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in about 2,500 urns on both Wednesday and Thursday last week, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported.
Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500 urns stacked on the ground inside. It was unclear how many of the urns had been filled.
People who answered the telephone at six of the eight funeral homes in Wuhan said that they either did not have data on how many urns were waiting to be collected, or were not authorized to disclose the numbers. Calls were not answered at the other two.
Some families said that they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes.
The photographs circulated as deaths from the coronavirus spiked in cities across the West, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soared.
Government data showed that 2,548 people in Wuhan had died of the coronavirus.
The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after China said its tally of new cases had hit zero.
It has stepped up diplomatic outreach to other nations hard hit by the coronavirus, sending some medical supplies, but some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of the official data, particularly given Wuhan’s overwhelmed medical system, authorities’ attempts to cover up the outbreak in its initial stages and multiple revisions to the way cases were counted.
Wuhan residents on social media have demanded disciplinary action against top officials.
Many people who died had COVID-19 symptoms, but were not tested and excluded from the tally of official cases, Caixin said.
There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing with those who had the coronavirus, it said.
There were 13,856 cremations in the city in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau.
That was 2,419 lower than in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The families of the deceased might not even be able to say a proper goodbye to their loved ones just yet.
The Wuhan government on Thursday last week issued a statement prohibiting individuals in the city from tomb-sweeping activities until April 30, meaning they would not be able to observe Tomb Sweeping Day this week.
Other Chinese provinces, including Guangxi and Zhejiang, have also announced similar restrictions.
Two residents of Wuhan who had lost family members to the coronavirus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, possibly as a measure against public gatherings.
“I was told by the district government to wait until further notice on when I can pick up my father’s ashes,” Wuhan resident “Xue Zai Shou Zhong” (Snow in Hand) wrote. “There is a staggered arrangement for urn collecting.”
Another netizen, “Adagier,” said that she lost her husband to the coronavirus and had since been contacted by police warning her not to be too emotional — and to stop posting online.
“I have only one demand,” she wrote. “I want to give my husband a proper burial as soon as possible.”
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
RSS