-
Coffins are running out due to a COVID-19 outbreak in rural areas in China, the BBC reported.
-
There are no official COVID-19 deaths or estimates in some rural areas of China.
-
One villager told the BBC that workers in the funeral industry “make a small fortune”.
Coffins are running out and funeral costs are skyrocketing due to the rapid rise in deaths from COVID-19 in rural China, BBC News reported.
A villager in China’s Shanxi province told the BBC that coffins are running out in some areas, and funeral industry workers are “making a small fortune” during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
China, a country of 1.4 billion inhabitants, has reported at least 34,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Reuters reported last week that WHO accused China of underreporting the scale of available data. In December, citing Airfinity, a health data company, Insider reported that more than 5,000 people a day die from COVID-19 in China.
It is difficult to collect data on COVID-19 in rural areas of the country. The BBC reported that there is currently no official estimate of the number of deaths in rural Chinese villages, as most residents are dying at home or in small village clinics.
BBC workers visiting China’s Shanxi province reported that crematoriums were busy, there was a shortage of coffins in funeral homes and deaths were on the rise.
“One day someone was going to die, the next day another. It’s been going on nonstop for the past month,” a villager told the BBC.
A doctor who runs a small clinic in rural China told the BBC he hopes the worst is over and most residents have already contracted COVID-19.
“We haven’t had any patients lately,” he said.
But there is a concern that more COVID-19 deaths are to come, the BBC reports. Millions of young people visited their rural hometowns on Lunar New Year, potentially bringing COVID-19 back to older and more vulnerable residents.
The BBC interviewed a man named Wang Peiwei, who died after his sister-in-law contracted COVID-19.
“He was a great person. We should do our best to put him off, and organize a big event,” he said.
Read the original article on Business Insider