Coffins pile up in northern Italy, cemeteries struggle to keep up with the dead

Record ID: 1465364

  • Title: Coffins pile up in northern Italy, cemeteries struggle to keep up with the dead
  • Date: 23rd March 2020
  • Summary: SERRAVALLE SCRIVIA, ITALY (MARCH 23, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COFFINS INSIDE CHURCH EXTERIOR OF CEMETERY CHURCH WORKER WEARING PROTECTIVE MASK PUSHING TROLLEY NEXT TO COFFINS VIEW OF COFFINS IN HALL (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE ALTAIR CREMATORIUM GROUP, MICHELE MARINELLO, SAYING: "Normally this structure holds about 30 coffins but in this period we have reached over one hundred coffins. This is a big problem, these numbers are so high due to the fact that we carry out 24 cremations a day but today we have received an average of 40 coffins. So we need to use temporary deposits like this one." VARIOUS OF COFFINS IN HALL (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE ALTAIR CREMATORIUM GROUP, MICHELE MARINELLO, SAYING: "In theory, we are used to see this because our job - unfortunately or fortunately - deals with coffins. But this situation is difficult also for us and for our workers because now we understand the exceptional nature of the crisis and we realize how many families in the most affected areas are suffering now." VARIOUS OF WORKER WEARING PROTECTIVE MASK MOVING COFFIN COFFINS IN HALL GOLDEN CROSS ON COFFIN VARIOUS OF COFFINS IN HALL (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE ALTAIR CREMATORIUM GROUP, MICHELE MARINELLO, SAYING: "Obviously we will be available until we have space because in the short term, if this trend continues, we will risk not having more space and not being able to help anymore." VARIOUS OF COFFINS IN WAREHOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE ALTAIR CREMATORIUM GROUP, MICHELE MARINELLO, SAYING: "We have accepted the request by the Italian authorities, the mayor of Bergamo and the Civil Protection Agency and therefore we are trying to help, we work with the utmost respect for the rules and procedures and ethical principles. We still try to guarantee maximum dignity to coffins that are brought here to Serravalle Scrivia. We have adopted a whole series of measures to contain the possibility of contagion and it is clear that we are facing a very serious emergency situation that we have never seen before." COFFIN BEING MOVED EXTERIOR OF CREMATORIUM OF SERRAVALLE SCRIVIA HEARSE ENTERING
  • Embargoed: 6th April 2020 17:36
  • Keywords: Alessandria COVID-19 Italy Serravalle Scrivia cemetery coffins coronavirus crematorium health lockdown
  • Location: SERRAVALLE SCRIVIA, ITALY
  • City: SERRAVALLE SCRIVIA, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001C69WPXJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC MATERIAL
    Dozens of coffins carrying coronavirus victims from Lombardy were lined up in a cemetery church in northern Italy on Monday (March 23) as the death toll in Italy climbed to over 5,000.
    A double line of coffins laid silently inside a little chapel of the Serravalle Scrivia crematorium, near Alessandria, in the northern region of Piedmont which stands next to one of the country's hardest hit regions of Lombardy.
    Workers of the local cemetery are trying to give proper burials for each person but with the numbers they are dealing with it is proving difficult.
    On Saturday (March 21) army trucks moved coffins from Bergamo, one of the areas in northern Italy with the most cases of coronavirus in the entire country. As the hospitals have been strained in coping with the relentless number of cases growing every day, so to have cemeteries felt the strain.
    "Normally this structure stocks about 30 coffins but in this period we have reached over one hundred coffins," the spokesperson of Altari Crematorium Group, Michele Marinello, told Reuters.
    "These numbers are so high due to the fact that we carry out 24 cremations a day but today we have received an average of 40 coffins," he said.
    Crematoriums and cemeteries in Lombardy and in other regions such as Emilia Romagna and Veneto at the epicenter of the Italian outbreak have been pushed to their limits and local authorities have asked help from the neighbouring Piedmont region.
    "This situation is difficult also for us and for our workers because now we understand the exceptional nature of the crisis and we realize how many families in the most affected areas are suffering now," Marinello said.
    Serravalle Scrivia crematorium, that usually handles bodies coming from Liguria and Piedmont regions, now receives 50 percent of bodies from nearby regions.
    A Reuters team at the cemetery witnessed five hearses arriving in the crematorium, over a period of ten minutes.
    (Production: Alex Fraser, Oriana Boselli, Fabiano Franchitti)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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