462 bodies cremated in 6 days in Kanpur, but official COVID-19 death toll is 66

Data from Bhairoghat and Bhagwatghat crematoriums shows 462 bodies were consigned to flames from April 19 to April 24. People have to wait with the bodies for the last rites and the situation is no different at burial grounds.

As Coronavirus cases surge, the number of cremations taking place at the city’s crematoriums has increased several-fold — far more than the 66 deaths officially attributed to the virus in the entire district over the past six days.

Data from Bhairoghat and Bhagwatghat crematoriums shows 462 bodies were consigned to flames from April 19 to April 24. People have to wait with the bodies for the last rites and the situation is no different at burial grounds.

In the six-day period, Kanpur Nagar district officially recorded 66 COVID-19 deaths, while 406 cremations took place at Bhairoghat and 56 in Bhagwatghat alone. The Bhairoghat crematorium also includes an electric crematorium.

“The number of cremations has risen several fold in the last week,” said Qamruddin, a Kanpur Municipal Corporation employee at the Bhairoghat electric crematorium.

“Until last month, we were cremating less than 10 bodies a day, but for the past 10 days, we have been handling over 50 bodies every day,” he said. Data shows that 91 of the 406 funerals were performed at Bhairoghat on April 21 alone, he added. The spurt has forced the people to wait for hours to cremate the dead, Qamruddin said.

“We are working for long and incinerators are running full time, but many people still have to wait with the bodies for the last rites,” he said.

Additional District Magistrate Atul Kumar said information about all the COVID-19 patients as well as their recovery or deaths is uploaded on the government portal, so “it is impossible to hide or alter the death toll”.

He, however, refused to comment over the large number of bodies being brought to the crematoriums, contrary to the COVID-19 death figures being shared with the media and displayed on the official portal.

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