Beijing: Funeral Homes In Covid-Hit Chinese Capital Struggle To Keep Up As Workers Call In Sick

Amid Covid surge, Chinese capital Beijing faced shortage of workers at funeral homes, as they test positive for coronavirus.

Beijing: Coronavirus linked deaths are re-emerging in Chinese capital Beijing after weeks of reporting no fatalities despite China seeing a dominant surge in cases. On Saturday, funeral homes in the city of 22 million struggled to keep up with the number of bodies coming in as their workers and drivers tested positive for the coronavirus.

After declaring that the Omicron strain has weakened and unprecedented public protests against a zero-COVID policy championed by President Xi Jinping, China abruptly shifted its COVID-19 management protocols more than a week ago. As the cities across China face their first waves of infections, the government has told people to treat mild symptoms at home unless they get really severe.

SERVICES AFFECTED AS WORKERS CALL IN SICK

In Beijing, which has yet to report any COVID-19 deaths since the policies changed on December 7, sick workers have hit the staffing of services from restaurants and courier firms to its roughly one dozen funeral parlours. There is a mounting backlog of demand for cremation services. Many workers at these funeral parlours are calling in sick as they test positive for Covid-19.

It was not immediately clear if the struggle to meet the increased demand for cremation was due to a rise in COVID-related deaths. At Huairou Funeral Home, a body had to wait for three days before it could be cremated, a staffer said.

NORMAL DEATHS?

The lack of reported COVID-19 deaths for the past 10 days have stirred debate on social media over data disclosure, fuelled also by a dearth of statistics over hospitalisations and the number of seriously ill.

China stopped publishing asymptomatic cases from Wednesday, citing a lack of PCR testing among people with no symptoms that was making it difficult to accurately tally the total count.

Official figures have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done across the country following the easing of zero-COVID policies.

In Shanghai, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Beijing, local education authorities on Saturday told most schools to hold classes online starting on Monday, to cope with worsening COVID infections across China.

In a sign of staffing crunches to come, Shanghai Disney Resort said on Saturday that entertainment offerings may reduce to a smaller workforce, although the theme park was still operating normally.