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CHINA COVID: COFFINS SELL OUT AS RURAL LOSSES MOUNT

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1 day ago

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 * Coronavirus pandemic


Image caption,
Demand for coffins in some rural areas has spiked
By Stephen McDonell in Shanxi
BBC News


The BBC has found evidence of a considerable number of Covid-related deaths in
China's rural regions, as the virus spread from big cities to more remote areas
with older populations.

In Xinzhou region of northern Shanxi province the coffin makers have been busy.
We watched the skilled craftsmen as they carved elaborate decorations into the
freshly-cut wood. Over recent months, they say, they haven't had time to stop.

One villager, a customer, told us that at times the coffins have sold out.
Laughing with a dose of the black humour you find in the area, he added that
those in the funeral industry had been "earning a small fortune".

There has been much debate about the real number of Covid deaths in China, after
the virus ripped through its megacities.

Some 80% of the population - more than a billion people - have been infected
since China scrapped restrictions in December, according to leading
epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. Last weekend China reported 13,000 Covid-related
deaths in less than a week, adding to the 60,000 deaths it has counted since
December.

But these deaths have been in hospitals. In rural areas there are only sparse
medical facilities and those who die at home are mostly not being counted.



There is not even an official estimate for the number of village deaths. But the
BBC found evidence the death toll is mounting.

We visited a crematorium and they too have been busy, mourners dressed in white
walking forward carrying the ceremonial box which would eventually contain the
remains of a loved one.

In another village, we saw one man and woman loading huge tissue paper birds
onto the back of a flatbed truck. "They're cranes. You ride the crane into the
afterlife," the woman said.

As they packed up other elaborate, Buddhist images newly made from tissue paper
they said they'd had an explosion in demand for their funeral decorations, two
or three times what's normal.

Everyone we met in this part of Shanxi who is connected to the funeral industry
told us a similar story about an increase in deaths and they all attributed it
to the coronavirus.


Image caption,
Wang Peiwei is determined to put on a good funeral for his sister-in-law

"Some sick people are already very weak," one man said as he continued to load
the truck. "Then they catch Covid, and their elderly bodies can't handle it."



We followed the truck to where the artworks were being delivered and met Wang
Peiwei, whose sister-in-law had just died.

The mother-of-two in her 50s had suffered from severe diabetes for years and
then she caught the coronavirus.

"After she got Covid she had a high fever, and her organs began to fail. Her
immune system wasn't strong enough to make it," said Mr Wang.

The courtyard at the family house was filling up with decorations for the
ceremony. Mr Wang told us there were still more images, flowers and the like to
come.

Standing in front of a tent in the courtyard where her body was covered up he
explained that, on the day of the funeral, 16 people would carry her coffin and
bury her in accordance with tradition.

He said that, though the cost of funeral arrangements had skyrocketed because of
the number of Covid deaths, they would pay the extra money in her honour.



"She was a great person. We must hold a grand event to send her off, the best we
can afford," he said.

Every year, hundreds of millions of younger people go back to their hometowns at
this time to celebrate the Lunar New Year. It's China's most important festival.

The villages they are returning to are now places where mostly older people live
- people who are more vulnerable to Covid.


Image caption,
Millions of people have travelled back to their hometowns from big cities

There has been great concern that this year's Spring Festival mass migration
could quickly spread the coronavirus into more remote areas, to deadly effect.

The government warned those in the cities not to go home this year if their
elderly relatives had not yet been infected.

Doctor Dong Yongming, who operates a very small village clinic, thinks at least
80% of residents there had already caught Covid.

"All the villagers come to us when they're sick," he said. "We're the only
clinic here."

Most who had died there had underlying diseases, he said.

In terms of managing the medicine they had as Covid hit the village, Dr Dong
said they would not sell medicine to people beyond their needs.

"For example, I would only give out four Ibuprofen tablets per person," he said.
"They don't need two boxes. It'll just be wasted."

However he said he believed the worst of this Covid wave was already behind
them: "We haven't had any patients in recent days."

Those who die in this region are buried in the fields. Farmers then continue to
plant crops and raise livestock around the mounds of their ancestors.

Driving along the road we noticed fresh mounds of earth with red flags placed on
the top. A lot of them. A farmer herding goats confirmed that they were new
graves.

"Families have been burying elderly people here after they die. There are just
too many," he said.


Image caption,
Fresh graves dot the nearby fields

In his village of a few thousand, he said that more than 40 residents had died
during the most recent Covid wave.

"One day someone would die, then the next day someone else. It's been non-stop
over the past month," he said.

But in the countryside here, they are quite philosophical about life and death.
This farmer said people would still celebrate the new year like they always
have.

"My son and daughter-in-law will come back soon," he said.

I asked if locals were worried that family members returning could mean more
infections.

"People shouldn't worry. No fear!" he said. "You will still become infected even
if you hide. Most of us have already got it and we are fine."

He, and many others are hoping that Covid's most deadly work has already been
done and that, for the time being at least, their energy can be spent on being
with the living rather than burying the dead.


MORE ON THIS STORY

 * China eyes life beyond Covid despite high infections
   
   12 January
   
   


RELATED TOPICS

 * China
 * Coronavirus pandemic





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