SP City Hall suspends funerals for coronavirus victims and authorizes night burials | Saint Paul

The measures are part of the capital’s “Funeral Service Contingency Plan”, which was detailed this Thursday by Mayor Bruno Covas (PSDB).

According to the city council, with the suspension of funerals for Covid-19 victims throughout the city, starting on Saturday, the tributes can be made in structures installed in cemeteries, near burial places.

The city also announced that night burials are allowed in the city after 6 p.m., if the number of daily burials in the city exceeds 400 per day. Some funerals like the Cemitério da Vila Nova Cachoeirinha, in the North Zone, have already started receiving power generators this Thursday (23) to guarantee the operation at night.

To satisfy this demand, the Municipal Funeral Service declares that it has hired 220 funeral homes and another 200 professionals will be hired at night.

The Funeral Service also has a new body tracking system to allow tracking. The system goes into operation on May 1.

In detailing the city’s funeral contingency plan, Mayor Bruno Covas announced that he will increase burial capacity in the city of São Paulo with the opening of 13,000 new trenches and the purchase of new refrigerated chambers that can temporarily store up to 1,000 bodies. per day to address the increasing number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our concern is to be prepared to organize and minimize the pain of families, so that they can give a dignified burial to those who will be lost. For this reason, we prepare this Contingency Plan, so that we can have an adequate operation of the funeral system in the city of São Paulo, ”declared Mayor Bruno Covas.

The purchase of 38,000 funeral urns to serve the capital in the coming months was also announced by the mayor and should be delivered in late May, according to city administration.

Another measure that began to be implemented this Thursday in São Paulo was the construction of a vertical cemetery for the burial of bodies on the land where the São Pedro Cemetery currently operates, in Vila Alpina, in the east of the capital.

According to the Union of Workers of the Public Administration and Municipalities of the Municipality of São Paulo (Sindsep), which represents the workers of the Municipal Funeral Service, a truck began to unload the material that will be used for the construction of the new space.

Images taken by Sindsep representatives show that biosecurity burial drawers are being used in the construction of the Vila Alpina vertical cemetery. This type of material is recommended to bury the bodies of people who have contracted infectious diseases.

According to the Secretariat of Sub-prefectures, it is about the installation of a thousand boxes that are preparing to receive bodies in the Vila Alpina cemetery.

According to the city council, the Vila Formosa cemetery, in the eastern area, considered the largest in Latin America, will function as a logistics center for the Covid-19 dead. The site will receive the bodies for their management and operation, which will take place in a new facility for the activity, which is due to be completed early next week.

Two other logistics bodies for bodies can be installed in the Vl Cemetery. Nova Cachoeirinha, in the North Zone, and the São Luís Cemetery, in the South Zone, if the number of deaths exceeds 400 burials per day, according to the plan of the municipal administration.

Eight refrigerated chambers will serve as a support for the temporary storage of funeral urns in these logistics centers, according to the city council. At least two cameras will be installed in the logistics center and will serve as support for the Vila Alpina crematorium. Each refrigerated chamber will have the capacity to accommodate 20 urns, with a total of 160 units, according to the Municipal Secretariat of Sub-prefectures, which is in charge of the Municipal Funeral Service.

“We are opening 13 thousand new trenches, even with the use and four mini backhoes and, if necessary, we will be able to work 24 hours a day here in the city of São Paulo. We built a logistics center in the Vila Formosa cemetery and acquired eight refrigerated chambers that can hold up to a thousand bodies awaiting burial, “said the mayor.

The 13 thousand ditches were opened in the cemeteries: Vila Formosa (approximately 8 thousand), Vila Nova Cachoeirinha (approximately 2 thousand), São Luís (approximately 3 thousand).

Increased burial capacity

Burial capacity has been increased to 400 per day. The historical average for burials is around 240 per day in the summer period. In the winter months, that number reaches 300 per day.

The mayor again recommended that the population stay home during the quarantine. “The virus is spreading throughout the city of São Paulo. In all regions, in all neighborhoods, we have already confirmed cases of deaths reaching almost a thousand in the city. The worst is yet to come,” he warned.

Until this Wednesday (22), the capital of São Paulo recorded 778 deaths from coronavirus. The prognosis is that this number will increase significantly in May, when the disease should reach its peak.

The Vila Formosa cemetery will receive the bodies where it will be possible to carry out the management and its operation. The logistics center installation will be completed early next week. Two other logistics centers can be installed in Cemitério Cachoeirinha (North Zone) and Cemitério São Luís (South Zone), if the number of deaths exceeds 400 burials per day.

To increase the burial capacity in the city, Covas will publish a decree in the Official Gazette this Friday (24), which alleviates the monopoly of the Funeral Service in the city. “So that all funerals and burials that take place in private cemeteries can be carried out without going through the Funeral Service of the Municipality of São Paulo.”

In addition, 38,000 new funeral urns and 15,000 reinforced bags were purchased for the displacement of bodies in the city.

The municipality of São Paulo prepared a funeral contingency plan to meet the increased demand due to the death of Covid-19.

“We have already launched a complementary credit of R $ 40 million for the Funeral Service. We are already expanding the capacity of the Funeral Service and municipal cemeteries to bury 240 bodies that jump to 400 daily. The city has already hired 220 gravediggers to handle this In 32 cars, there were 36 and now we have 32 more cars working in the funeral services fleet. We expanded the service of funeral agencies, we are already installing nine branches in our nine municipal hospitals referred to Covid. We created a call center for side of 156 so the people can have the funeral at 156, “Covas said.

The fleet of vehicles for the transfer of bodies incorporated another 20 cars to serve the Funeral Service. In total, the number went from 36 to 56 cars, of which ten are reserved for the transfer of bodies of victims or suspects from Covid-19. According to the mayor, if necessary, he will acquire 1,000 crates in a vertical cemetery and hire another 200 gravediggers.

The state of São Paulo recorded 211 new coronavirus deaths in 24 hours on Thursday (23) and the total number has increased to 1,345 since the start of the pandemic, according to the State Department of Health. There are also 16,740 confirmed cases of the disease in the state

According to the secretariat, 256 municipalities have at least one confirmed case of the disease and 114 cities have already registered at least one death. Most deaths are still concentrated in the capital, with 912 records. However, the number of deaths increased 21 times in the interior, the coast and other cities of Greater São Paulo. The balance of this Thursday points to 433 deaths in these regions. On April 1, there were only 20 deaths outside the city of São Paulo.

There is a significant increase in Covid-19 admissions, with 7,003 suspects and confirmed in hospitals in São Paulo: 2,807 admitted to the ICU and 4,196 in the ward. On Wednesday (22), the total number of hospitalized for suspicion or confirmation was 6,163.

The general occupancy rate in the ICUs of the public and private hospitals of the state is 55.3% (4,342 beds) and in the nursing room 37.4% (8,960 beds). In Greater São Paulo, the ICU occupancy rate is 74% (2,469 beds) and 57.8% in wards (4,479 beds).

Several referral hospitals are already overloaded. The ICU occupancy rate of the most sought-after hospitals in the Metropolitan Region varies between 96% at the Emílio Ribas Institute and 89% at the Mário Covas de Santo André Hospital.