Brazil Exhumes Graveyards To Make Room New Deaths

June 14, 2020 Coronavirus, Government

Sao Paulo has started to dig up graveyards to create more space as coronavirus continues to ravage Brazil. In a statement issued Friday, Sao Paulo’s municipal funeral service said the remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags that will be delivered to other cemeteries within 15 days.

Brazil is the second-most infected country in the world with 832,866 total cases, and it surpassed the U.K. on Friday to become the country with the second-highest death toll from the pandemic, with over 42,055 dead so far.

Sao Paulo alone accounts for 5,480 of those deaths, making it one of the most severe hot spots in what is the hardest-hit nation in Latin America.

Brazil’s biggest metropolis has an unorthodox plan to free up space at its graveyards during the coronavris pandemic: digging up the bones of people buried in the past and storing their bagged remains in large metal containers. https://t.co/pNIzN0KiW6

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 13, 2020

It’s one of Brazil’s most famous beaches, but Copacabana is now the scene of a fake graveyard. #Covid19 pic.twitter.com/W7yKTjrnEM

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) June 12, 2020