Satellite photographs captured crowding at crematoriums and burial houses in a number of Chinese cities, as the nation continues to combat an unprecedented wave of COVID-19 infections following the removal of stringent pandemic restrictions.
The images, captured by Maxar in late December and early January, depict a funeral home on the outskirts of Beijing that appears to have built a brand-new parking lot, as well as lines of vehicles waiting outside funeral houses in Kunming, Nanjing, Chengdu, Tangshan, and Huzhou.
China Zero-COVID policy
Last week at the same residence, there were more cars parked along the streets near the door.
China recently abandoned its stringent zero-COVID stance on the virus, which had provoked a huge uproar after more than two years of draconian restrictions on residents’ private life.
China’s stringent policy spared its populace from the enormous mortality observed in Western nations, a point that the Communist Party often emphasized to demonstrate the alleged superiority of its limits.
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Health Professionals Struggle With Rising COVID-19 Cases
Overworked workers struggle to keep up with the number of crates containing yellow body bags, as families describe waiting days to bury or cremate their loved ones in Beijing.
As tales of overburdened hospitals and funeral homes continue to surface, China has been accused by the WHO and the US of understating the severity of its current outbreak, with top global health experts pressing Beijing to disclose more information on the rapid spread.
As overworked employees battle to keep up with the number of boxes containing yellow body bags and families report waiting days to bury or cremate their loved ones, news reports from Beijing describe the makeshift facilities used to store the deceased.
China’s official COVID-19 death toll after it loosened restrictions has remained astonishingly low, with only 37 recorded deaths since December 7.
Although the World Health Organization and the United States accuse China of downplaying the severity of its current outbreak, leading global health officials are urging Beijing to disclose more information on the disease’s rapid spread, as reports of congested hospitals and funerals come in.
Mike Ryan, WHO’s executive director for health emergencies, stated that the data published by China understate the full effect of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, and deaths.
He admitted that many nations have experienced delays in reporting hospital data, but cited China’s definition of a COVID-19 death as a contributing factor.
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