S.Korea’s COVID-19 deaths strain crematoriums, hospitals

A screen shows the number of coronavirus infections nationwide at a subway station in Seoul on Tuesday. Pic/AP

Health officials in South Korea have instructed crematoriums to burn more bodies per day and funeral homes to add more refrigerators to store the dead as families struggle with funeral arrangements amid a rise in COVID-19 deaths.

The country has been dealing with a massive coronavirus outbreak driven by the fast-moving omicron variant, which has compromised a once robust pandemic response and is driving up hospitalisations and fatalities.

Officials have already allowed the 60 crematories across the country to burn for longer hours starting last week, which raised their combined capacity from around 1,000 to 1,400 cremations per day.

But that has not been enough to meaningfully ease the backlog of bodies waiting to be cremated in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to half of South Korea's 52 million people and the centre of its COVID-19 outbreak.

10,09,950 No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
46,92,12,705 Total no. of cases worldwide
60,77,252 Total no. of deaths worldwide

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