South Korea’s COVID-19 deaths strain crematories, hospitals

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Health officials in South Korea have instructed crematories to burn more bodies per day and funeral homes to add more refrigerators to store the dead. Families are struggling with funeral arrangements amid a rise in COVID-19 deaths. The country has been dealing with a massive coronavirus outbreak driven by the fast-moving omicron variant, which has compromised its pandemic response and is driving up hospitalizations and fatalities. The 60 crematories across the country are handling 1,400 cremations per day. But that hasn’t been enough to meaningfully ease the backlog of bodies waiting to be cremated in the densely populated capital region.