BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Brooklyn’s cemeteries are
grappling with the substantial
increase in deaths due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, and
struggling to accommodate
the infl ux of burials and cremations.
“Cremations have more
than doubled, and it just
reached the point where we
had to put a cap on how many
bodies we receive every day,”
said Eric Barna, the vice president
of operations of Green-
Wood Cemetery.
The landmark Fifth Avenue
cemetery has limited
the amount of cremations to
around 20 per day due to their
limited space capacity for the
deceased remains, he said.
Likewise, burials have
gone up signifi cantly in recent
days, with 15 interments on
Thursday, compared to their
usual two or three per day,
said Barna.
The death count for Brooklynites
due to the novel coronavirus
COURIER L 12 IFE, APRIL 17-23, 2020
tallied at 1,220 people as
of April 9 out of 4,426 citywide,
and Governor Andrew Cuomo
announced the same day that
the state would bring in additional
funeral directors to
deal with the number of New
Yorkers that have passed.
With the climbing death
count and increasing infection
rates, Catholic cemeteries and
graveyards have also taken
additional safety measures,
according to John Quaglione,
a spokesman for the Diocese of
Brooklyn, which manages the
Holy Cross Cemetery in East
Flatbush along with smaller
parish cemeteries in the borough
and three cemeteries in
neighboring Queens.
The religious organization
is limiting the number of attendants
at graveside ceremonies
to 10 people, in accordance
with a statewide order
— but Quaglione noted that
this has left larger families
with hard choices, unimaginable
just weeks ago.
“If you’re the 11th person
in the family, or if it’s just a
friend of yours, or a neighbor,
you can’t go,” he said. “It becomes
a question of who goes
to a ceremony and those are
all tough personal and family
decisions we have to make until
this curve is fl attened.”
As hospitals ban visits to
patients to stem the outbreak
of COVID-19, funerals offer
a last chance to be with one’s
loved ones during these diffi -
cult times, Quaglione said.
“It’s really the opportunity
— the only opportunity — to
say goodbye to a loved one,” he
said.
For the city’s Jewish cemeteries,
the New York Board
of Rabbis advised that rabbis
host burial rites and funeral
services via video conference,
while limiting funeral attendance
to four mourners, the
Queens Eagle reported.
Delays due to the health
crisis have also made it diffi -
cult to follow Jewish customs
Green-Wood Cemetery has experienced a surge in burials and cremations
due to COVID-19. Wikimedia Commons
of burial within 24 hours,
Board of Rabbis Vice President
Joseph Potasnik told that
paper.
Green-Wood Cemetery has
yet to limit the number of people
at graveside ceremonies,
but is working with families
to adhere to social distancing
guidelines, but allows for no
more than 10 people at indoor
ceremonies, Barna said.
The cemetery has also cut
its staff in half, working on
rotation to allow them to better
practice social distancing
and give them a break after
working long hours. One of
their mechanics contracted
the respiratory illness from
his son, according to Barna,
who praised employees dealing
with these exceptional circumstances.
“All our workers have been
fantastic. They knew based on
the role the cemetery provides,
we couldn’t run and hide from
this thing,” he said. We’re not
fi rst responders but we’re in
that chain and we have to deal
with that business.”
GRAVE TRUTH
BK cemeteries struggle to meet COVID demand
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