Videos show bodies in China being burned on the streets as crematoriums fill up due to COVID surge

Families in China are resorting to unauthorized cremations on streets as hospitals and funeral homes are overcrowded due to the spiraling COVID-19 surge.

After China terminated most COVID-19 restrictions last month in response to protests, the virus has been spreading at an uncontrollable rate. Beijing has confessed that tracking the outbreak’s magnitude is no longer feasible, reported the AFP news agency.

Multiple videos have been posted online showing mourning families carrying out makeshift cremations outside apartment complexes and in parking lots.

Mourners can be seen burning joss paper and flowers while weeping next to covered bodies in Shanghai.

One funeral home in Shanghai was permitting families only five to 10 minutes after hours of waiting to pay their respects due to the overwhelming demand for funeral services. Longhua Funeral Home usually handles around 100 corpses per day but received around five times as many in one day, according to Bloomberg.

Scalpers without any need for funeral services began waiting in long lines outside funeral homes as early as 2 a.m. just to sell their spots to desperate families hours later.

“The whole system is paralyzed right now,” an employee at the Shanghai crematorium told Bloomberg.

In Beijing, emergency hotlines have been receiving more than 30,000 calls per day for weeks, according to Beijing Daily.

Other countries are beginning to place more stringent travel restrictions in place for inbound travelers from China.

Morocco has banned all flights from China, while the U.S. and Japan now require negative COVID-19 tests upon arrival.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to these targeted restrictions by stating that China believes such measures are “disproportionate and simply unacceptable.”

“Meanwhile, we do not believe the entry restriction measures some countries have taken against China are science-based,” Ning stated in a press conference on Tuesday. “We firmly reject using COVID-19 measures for political purposes and will take corresponding measures in response to varying situations based on the principle of reciprocity.”

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