New York buries unclaimed bodies at fast pace to clear space in morgues for COVID-19 victims

New York is burying unclaimed bodies at a rapid pace to clear space in the city's morgues, where mortal remains of coronavirus patients are piling up, according to a media report.

A report in The New York Time said every Thursday was burial day on Hart Island, the final resting place off the Bronx for New York City's unclaimed dead.

"But as with many things, coronavirus has changed all that," it said.

Burials are now being done five days a week at Hart Island, with roughly 25 bodies lowered into trenches each day, according to a city official.

"That is as many burials as would typically be done in a week before the virus hit," the report said.

Drone footage and images of burial crews in freshly dug muddy trenches burying body after body in bare wooden boxes are circulating in social media.

New York is the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US and is seeing record number of deaths due to the virus.

The state recorded the highest single day death toll for the third consecutive day on Thursday as 799 people died due to the deadly viral infection.

So far more than 7,000 people have died in the state from COVID-19, several times more than the total number of people killed in the devastating 9/11 terror attacks.

The NYT report quoted a city official as saying that the only people being buried at the island for now are those for whom the city has been unable to contact next of kin for some time.

"We understand extenuating circumstances," the official said, noting that bodies that have not been claimed because their families are under quarantine or on lockdown or for some other reason will not be buried on Hart Island.

The report said the city's morgues used to have adequate space to hold unclaimed bodies for 30 to 60 days before they were buried on Hart island. But now, with the pace of the coronavirus death toll increasing, the city is moving to bury more of those people to clear space in the morgues.

"Because we didn't have pressure on the system, we didn't have to move them quickly," the official said, adding, "We are now burying people who have been sitting with us for quite some time."