OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) – All three cremation chambers are open 24 hours a day, while coffin storage capacity has been repeatedly increased.
Despite all efforts, the largest crematorium in the Czech Republic in the northeastern city of Ostrava has been dominated by an increasing number of victims of the pandemic.
On Thursday, funeral home cars delivered caskets every few minutes, some with “COVID” written on them. Currently, the crematorium receives more than 100 coffins per day, almost double its maximum cremation capacity.
With new confirmed COVID-19 infections around record levels, the situation looks set to get worse.
The authorities in Ostrava have accelerated plans to build a fourth oven, but in the meantime, they are seeking help from the government’s central crisis committee to coordinate the pandemic.
“It is an extraordinary situation,” said Katerina Sebestova, deputy mayor of Ostrava. “Nobody here remembers anything like that.” The installation belongs to the Prefecture of Ostrava.
“It is simply because we have 60% more deaths than a year ago. So, we have to deal with the storage capacity and the cremating capacity, ”she said.
Up to 1,000 bodies a month were cremated in Ostrava before the pandemic. The number rose to 1,550 in November and 1,570 in December, after a sudden increase in late October, said crematorium director Ivo Furmancik.
The Czech Republic was spared the worst of the pandemic in the spring, only to see its health system collapse in the fall, at the time when the peak began. It was hit hard again with new infections reaching a record 17,668 on Wednesday, a record set for the second consecutive day.
It is likely that the increase in infections will again be followed by an increase in deaths.
“To tell you the truth, I hope the situation will not get better, but unfortunately it will probably get worse,” said Furmancik.
The crematorium built a refrigerated storage container to double its storage capacity in 60 coffins and increased it further with the addition of two mobile freezers for another 100. But the cremation chambers cannot take it anymore.
“For two and a half months, we worked around the clock, with no maintenance break,” said Furmancik. “So this is not really an ideal situation. How long can this last? I am concerned that, due to this intensive use, crematoriums could be seriously damaged at any time. “
The 10.7 million country recorded 794,740 confirmed cases and 12,621 deaths. November was the deadliest month, with 4,937 dead.
Ostrava is the capital of the Moravian-Silesian region, which, together with another region, is the highest number of virus deaths in the country, with around 1,500 deaths.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who heads the central crisis committee, has promised to create a system for distributing bodies to other crematoriums across the country, but some have already indicated that they are reaching their own limits.
“Another option, more difficult, is to take only the number of deaths that we are able to cremate,” said Furmancik.
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