COVID-19 has made honoring the dead in India a hurried affair, largely devoid of the rituals that give it meaning for mourners.
People wait by the burning pyre of a relative who died of COVID-19, at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 5, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is leaving India's morgues piling up with the dead and graveyards and crematoriums overwhelmed. Like elsewhere in the world, the virus has made honoring the dead in New Delhi a hurried affair, largely devoid of the rituals that give it meaning for mourners.
New Delhi has officially reported close to 1,100 deaths from the coronavirus, but cemeteries and crematoriums in the city say the actual number is several hundred higher. Hospital morgues are beyond capacity, and with summer temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius some bodies are being kept on thick ice slabs.
On Friday, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed cases and 8,498 deaths, according to the Health Ministry. But that is just the known cases. Like elsewhere in the world, the actual number of infections is thought to be far higher for a number of reasons including limited testing.
Even with working hours extended, there has been no time for individual cremation ceremonies and exhaustive rituals with incense, garlands of marigold and chanting.
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