Italy Coronavirus Update: 10,000+ Dead Bodies Might Not Get A Resting Place They Deserve

With March on the verge of ending, the number of deaths in Italy owing to the coronavirus outbreak is now at 10,779 with the number of infected cases crossing 97,000.

As the death toll keeps rising, with an even higher spike expected in southern Italy, the number of dead bodies is now so high that the Italian authorities do not know “where to put the coffins,” as shared by Priest Father Mario Carminati, a senior priest in Seriate.

As the vast number of people dying shows no signs of slowing down, Father Mario had been witnessing a ceaseless arrival of coffins at St. Joseph’s Church. After a certain number of bodies arrive, he and other priests deliver mass blessings to the departed before they are all loaded into army trucks, taken somewhere where there is space for their bodies to be buried or else they are cremated.

But the saddest thing for Father Carminati is that many of them didn’t even get the chance to meet their loved ones before they succumbed to their illness, dying alone as due to the restrictions in place at hospitals across Italy wherein the sick are kept in complete isolation. Their family members are no allowed to meet them in order to not allow the further spread of coronavirus.

“We often talk about the most needy and these are truly the most needy now. They are the most needy even though they are no longer alive. No one has the time or opportunity to take care of them anymore so I decided to open the house of the Lord to them,” said Father Carminati.

The southern part of Italy is feared to record an even higher death toll.

The Lombardy region of Italy is the country’s worst-hit area by coronavirus as the number of deaths here is almost 6,000 now, with the national government now planning to extend the country-wide lockdown to mid-April.

And now, as the virus travels, the southern part of Italy is getting ready for a sudden explosion in coronavirus cases within the next 10 days.

“In the South, the situation is about to explode dramatically. The next 10 days here will be hell,” Vincenzo de Luca, Campania’s governor, wrote in his recent letter to the central government. “There is the real possibility that there will be a tragedy in the South, on top of Lombardy’s.”