"No Funeral Ceremony, Only Cremation" Funeral Services Suspended Amid Surge in Deaths in China

Many Funeral Home and Crematorium Staff Also Infected with COVID-19
Guangzhou "Increased Workload Unavoidable... Resuming on 11th Next Month"

As the number of deaths suspected to be caused by COVID-19 rapidly increases in China, local governments have suspended funeral services citing increased workload.

On the 25th, the Guangzhou Funeral Service Center announced, "Due to increased workload, funeral services such as funerals will be temporarily suspended until January 10th next year." The center explained that cremation without separate ceremonies like memorial services is still possible.

Furthermore, the center added, "We are promoting the new trend of Huyangbocjang (厚養薄葬, meaning to care well during life but keep funerals simple) to simplify funeral procedures, and we ask that funerals be postponed as much as possible."

Employees Moving Bodies in Containers at Overcrowded Crematorium in Beijing
Photo by AP·Yonhap News

Recently, following the easing of quarantine measures in China, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has been rapidly increasing. The number of deaths suspected to be caused by COVID-19 is also rising. Obituaries of prominent scholars and celebrities have been appearing one after another. In places like Beijing, hospital morgues are reported to be full, leading to cases where bodies are kept at home. Although cremation facilities operate 24 hours a day, they are unable to process the influx of bodies in a timely manner.

An official from the Civil Affairs Bureau of Tongzhou District, Beijing, said, "We used to cremate an average of 40 bodies per day, but now it is about 150. A significant number of staff at funeral homes and crematoriums have been infected with COVID-19, causing an overload in handling bodies."

Meanwhile, Chinese health authorities have stopped releasing daily COVID-19 statistics starting today. Although deaths from COVID-19 infections have surged, only deaths from pneumonia and respiratory failure have been classified and reported as COVID-19 deaths, leading to criticism of a large gap from reality. Bloomberg recently reported, citing internal meeting records from the National Health Commission, that up to 248 million people, equivalent to 18% of China's population, may have been infected with COVID-19 as of the 20th of this month.

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