(8 Jan 2021) The director of one of the biggest crematoriums in the Czech Republic is calling for help after becoming overwhelmed with bodies amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
All three cremators at Ostrava Crematorium have been working round the clock while the storage capacity for caskets has had to be boosted several times.
With coronavirus infections hitting record highs recently, the problem is not an easy one to solve.
On Thursday, hearses from funeral companies delivered caskets to the crematorium every few minutes, some of them with "COVID" written on them.
These days, the crematorium receives more than 100 coffins daily, about double its maximum capacity.
The authorities in the northeastern city of Ostrava have been speeding up plans to build a fourth furnace but in the meantime, they have called on the government's central crisis committee that coordinates its response to the pandemic for help.
Up to 1,000 bodies were cremated in Ostrava a month before the pandemic struck.
The number was 1,550 in November and 1,570 in December after a surge began at the end of October, crematorium director Ivo Furmancik said.
The Czech Republic was spared the worst of the pandemic in the spring only to see its health care system near collapse in the fall, about the time the spike began.
It has been again among the hardest hit countries recently with infections reaching a record high of 17,668 on Wednesday, a record set for the second straight day.
The surge in infections is likely again to be followed by a surge in deaths.
"For two and a half months we have been working non-stop with no pauses for maintenance," Furmancik said. "How long can this last?"
To cope, the crematorium has built a new walk-in cooler to double its storage capacity by 60 coffins and acquired a couple of Refrigerated truck trailers for another 100, giving it some breathing space.
"I expect that the situation won't get any better but unfortunately will get worse," said Furmancik.
The country of 10.7 million has so far reported 794,740 confirmed cases with 12,621 deaths.
The Moravian-Silesian Region with the capital of Ostrava tops the death toll with another Czech region with some 1,500 deaths from COVID-19.
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