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Over 1 million people are interred on Hart Island in New York, a site that has been used for over 150 years as a burial ground. The site is used to bury the unclaimed dead.
“There will be no mass burials on Hart Island. Everything will be individual and every body will be treated with dignity.”
Mayor Bill De Blasio
However, reading the headlines of most news sources today, you would think that people are being chucked in mass graves with no regard. With the world quarantined and desperate for news, many sites have taken to fear mongering headlines that are misleading or simply untrue.
Typically if a person dies they have between 30 and 90 days to be sent to Hart Island for burial. In light of this pandemic and the high number of bodies, the time period has been changed to 14 days.
“These are people who, for two weeks, we have not been able to find anyone who says, ‘I know that person, I love that person, I will handle the burial,'” Press Secretary Freddy Goldstein said. “These are people who we have made zero contact with the family.”
CNN
Alarmingly, the number of unclaimed bodies being sent to the island has increased astronomically. According to Goldstein, Hart Island typically sees around 25 people a year. That number has changed to 25 people a day.
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