In the UK they set up temporary mortuaries for the …

Dozens of bodies arrive every day in this white tent, a makeshift morgue set up in the middle of an Epsom esplanade in the south England, in a country with hospitals overwhelmed by the news coronavirus.

The UK is hit hard by a variant of Covid-19 considered more contagious and which has skyrocketed cases and mortality. Last Friday, 1,325 deaths were recorded in 24 hours, which has never been seen since the start of the crisis.

This has put a lot of pressure on hospitals, both their intensive care units and their morgues. And, rebound, also in the funeral sector.

In the absence of places, the temporary Epsom morgue in Surrey County, southwest London, houses 170 bodies, more than half of which are victims of covid-19, according to the city council.

However, if the 1,400 temporary positions were not sufficient in the coming weeks, the county would be in “serious difficulties”, warned a spokesperson for the Local Resilience Forum in Surrey, created to coordinate the response of local authorities to the pandemic.

Last March, when this mortuary was installed in a rehabilitation center, in 12 weeks, 700 bodies passed through. By way of comparison, “since December 21, after only two and a half weeks, 300 bodies have passed” through this temporary morgue, the spokesperson said.

In London, health authorities consider that in some places one in 20 people is infected with the new coronavirus, far more than the already high national average of one in 50 people.

A situation which led to the installation of a new temporary mortuary near the Crematorium of Breakspear, in north-west London, to “supplement existing capacity”, a spokesperson for local authorities told AFP . However, it is not yet operational.

For the moment, in the capital, during this second wave, they have not yet had to resort to the other temporary morgues activated at the start of the pandemic, recalled the spokesperson.

“London’s mortuaries are rising and cooperating with each other to ease localized pressures, and funerals continue to be held across the capital,” the spokesperson said.

Massive influx

Deborah Smith, spokesperson for a funeral home association, the National Association of Funeral Directors, told AFP the country is discussing whether or not to use temporary deposits.

As he explained, his industry faces three challenges: increasing deaths from covid-19, death rates, which are typically higher in winter, and the likelihood of employees getting sick.

“The numbers are higher, so is the sense of uncertainty,” Smith said. “We don’t know how long the numbers will keep going up before they go down again.”

Siraj Qazi, director of the Ghousia Funeral Service, a mortuary in the Muslim community in Luton, 20 miles north of London, has noted a “massive influx” in recent weeks.

“We do funerals every day and the deaths we are currently facing are mostly related to covid,” Qazi said. Today’s levels are close to March and April when the first wave peaked and your business was nearly overwhelmed.

The United Kingdom is the country in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 82,000 dead, and its health services are preparing for the “worst weeks of the pandemic”, warned the English chief medical officer, Chris Whitty .