The rate of Covid-19 related deaths in China is said to be so high that funeral parlours are giving families only five to ten minutes to mourn.
There have also been reports of long queues forming outside parlours, and a market has emerged of people arriving early so they can sell their space in the queue to a mourner.
One funeral parlour, which is dealing with five times its usual number of deceased, is only allowing families a few minutes to mourn the loss of their loved ones, Bloomberg reported.
The Longhua Funeral Home laid out several bodies on stretchers to allow their family members to say their final goodbyes before they were taken away.
“The whole system is paralysed right now,” one Longhua employee said.
Several users of Chinese social media platform Weibo shared unconfirmed videos of long queues outside a funeral home.
One user wrote that at least 30 people began lining up outside a funeral home at 2am on 27 December.
Even in the capital city of Beijing, emergency services have become overwhelmed with health authorities claiming they had to respond to around 30,000 calls every day, Beijing Daily reported.
Meanwhile, Business Insider reports that there are so many people trying to sell their spot in line for marked up prices, that the police have had to intervene.
The Baoxing Funeral Parlor confirmed 20 people were arrested on 29 December for queuing “without the need for funeral services”.
Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt
Pictured above: Covid-19 in China
Image source: The New York Times
