Seoul City Activates 'Emergency Operation System' 8.3 Times Per Cremation Facility, Raising Recommended Standards

Activation of Emergency System Operating Until Midnight in Collaboration with Seoul Facilities Corporation Labor Union

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has recently activated an emergency system to reduce citizens' inconvenience caused by the shortage of cremation facilities, operating crematories at full capacity until midnight every day.

On the 23rd, Seoul announced that through this emergency operation, it plans to increase the operating rate from the usual 135 cases to 232 cases, raising the utilization rate to 72%. This means an average of 8.3 operations per furnace, exceeding the government’s recommended standard of 7 operations per furnace as of the 22nd.

Seoul had been conducting an average of 135 cremations per day through two cremation facilities, Seunghwawon and Seoul Memorial Park. However, as deaths increased due to COVID-19, an additional 28 operations were added to meet the demand for cremations. Recently, with seasonal factors such as the change of seasons combined with COVID-19, the number of deaths increased, leading to an expansion of cremation furnace operations to 191 cases from the 16th, but this was still insufficient to cope with the rapid rise in COVID-19 deaths.

Accordingly, Seoul decided that a more intensive emergency system was necessary and took measures to operate additional shifts until 24:00 starting from the 24th, planning to conduct 232 cremations per day.

This operation exceeds the government’s nationwide request for crematories to operate 7 times per furnace per day (196 cases) by 36 cases, and compared to the usual 135 cases, it represents an additional 97 cases (71.8%) of operation.

Jung Soo-yong, Director of Welfare Policy, stated, “Activating the emergency system is inevitable to solve the shortage of cremation facilities in Seoul,” and added, “We are grateful to the cremation facility workers and union representatives who are actively cooperating to overcome this crisis together.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.