Bergamo is the capital city of Bergamo Province, which is in Lombardy in Northern Italy. The region around Bergamo is at the epicenter of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak in Italy. The number of fatalities has risen so rapidly that the crematorium in the city is overwhelmed, and can no longer handle the volume. Coffins are being transported by the army to other cities for cremation.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this news video, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
The article below from Il Giornale (also translated by FouseSquawk) describes the situation in Bergamo:
Bergamo: The army carries the coffins to the crematoria of Modena and Bologna
The operation is to alleviate the crematorium of Lombardy. The army has also stepped in.
To date, the province of Bergamo remains the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 4,305 persons is infected by Covid-19, an increase of 312 patients compared to yesterday. And here the number of deaths has also risen: Yesterday, over 300 were registered.
A number so high that the crematorium of the city was at the point of collapse. Too many victims were arriving, too rapidly to be able to cremate them all in a brief time. The mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, explained that “in the first two weeks of March, the number of deceased is four times higher than during the same period last year.” Moreover, “Aside from the sad count of deceased that is being reported by official sources, there are so many other persons dying at home or in rest homes.”
To confront this emergency, the mayors of other cities have made their own structures for this service available. “In a tragic moment, your collaboration and proximity is commendable,” Giorgio Gori has expressed his thanks, addressing a letter to the first citizens of various municipalities who volunteered to take 60 coffins. They are: Acqui Terme, Brescia, Cervignano del Friuli, Domodossola, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Rimini, Serravalle Scrivia, Trecate, and Varese.
In the evening the operation began at the Bergamo cemetery. During the night, in fact, at the cemetery of San Cataldo of Modena, the arrival of 31 coffins was expected, which during the day on Thursday March 19 will be sent to the cremation plant. That was confirmed by the municipality with a Facebook post: “Modena is also collaborating in its assistance to Bergamo, which is confronting the tragic emergency caused by a high number of deaths in recent days due to the coronavirus,” it reads. The transport of the corpses will be carried out by means of the army, which arrived in Bergamo in the evening.
Video transcript:
| 00:06 | The scene that the videocameras recorded last night at Bergamo shows how | |
| 00:10 | strong and lethal the force of the Covid-19 | |
| 00:14 | still is on Italy. From the mortuary room of the city cemetery where they are collected, | |
| 00:18 | the army carries away dozens of coffins to other regions. | |
| 00:22 | The crematorium ovens cannot sustain the work these days, | |
| 00:26 | and the mayor has requested help from neighboring cities. | |
| 00:30 | The ashes of the deceased will return to Bergamo in the coming days. | |
| 00:34 | The isolation of the lowered shop-shutters, the ban on embracing are not enough. | |
| 00:37 | Italy has not succeeded in defeating the coronavirus, and the numbers divulged | |
| 00:41 | yesterday with the usual bulletin from civil protection are not encouraging: | |
| 00:46 | 35,713 positive for the coronavirus, in the whole country, | |
| 00:50 | with a number a number of victims in a single day that had until now never been recorded. | |
| 00:55 | Unfortunately today I have to communicate to you also the number of deaths. | |
| 00:58 | We have recorded 475 deaths. | |
| 01:02 | And though there are also more than 1,000 in recovery solely from yesterday, | |
| 01:06 | it is necessary to reiterate the importance of respecting the rules. | |
| 01:09 | We do not have the conditions, there are no inclinations to give in. We have to maintain | |
| 01:14 | these measures if we want to verify the effects and if we really want… | |
| 01:18 | and this is the second message — to do it in a way that protects our most fragile people. | |
| 01:24 | And to contain the epidemic, Bologna is experimenting with a new classification | |
| 01:28 | of pads. They are calling it “drive through”. | |
| 01:32 | They are already being used in South Korea, and it allows the verification | |
| 01:36 | of the positive infection with the virus without having to get out of their car. |
Cremation is not big with Catholics (at least, it traditionally has not been, perhaps I’m out of date), I wonder if this speaks to the ethnicity distribution of the deaths.
it is forbidden for Muslims and Jews
It’s either anonymous cremation or digging trenches and bury them in mass graves covered with lime.
it is more and more popular with catholics too. There is an increasing number of urn plots on the church- owned cemetary where my family lies.
But strong catholic believers will insist on their intact though dead remains being enterred. This is from the scriptures it seems.
Why do some devout believers apparently think their God is not omnipotent, ie he can’t resurrect lost or destroyed bodies? Not much of a god, imho.