Troubling new video released on Thursday shows workers in protective suits burying stacks of wooden coffins in a mass grave at Hart Island 🙏🏾
The city has little choice but to use Hart Island as a mass burial site for these COVID-19 victims a City Hall spokeswoman confirmed said on Thursday. “For decades, Hart Island has been used to lay to rest decedents who have not been claimed by family members. We will continue using the island in that fashion during this crisis and it is likely that people who have passed away from COVID who fit this description will be buried on the Island in the coming days,” mayoral spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein told The Post.
Under the new policy put in place, the city Medical Examiner’s Office said it will now hold bodies in storage for 14 days before they are shipped out for burial if they remain unclaimed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this week the city was considering temporary burial of the pandemic’s dead on Hart Island, but did not confirm.
As of Friday April 10th New York State had recorded 7,067 COVID-19 related deaths with record 799 on Thursday alone.