Ten unclaimed urns sit in the crematorium in central China city Jingzhou, Hubei province which was hard-hit by the coronavirus. Meanwhile, life is slowly returning to normal all over China as shops, restaurants, bars, and offices are open again for business.
Funerals are banned across China. In places like Jingzhou, grieving relatives who are stuck in their homes must patiently wait to retrieve the remains of their late loved ones.
According to the director of the Jingzhou crematorium, the ashes of the dead "are under our care for now because their family members are in quarantine, or they're away and can't come back yet."
"No farewells, no ceremonies are allowed," Sheng, the director who only gave his last name, said.
The nation's bereaved families have not been able to have funeral ceremonies since Feb. 1, even as China's pandemic eases.
None of the complex and comforting rituals were held to ensure a peaceful journey to the afterlife: Taoist or Buddhist prayers, white mourning clothes, all-night vigils, and visitors paying their last respects to the coffin.
They cannot even honor the ashes of the dead during the quarantine.
Nowadays, when a person dies, the hospital will disinfect the body and the cremation will happen immediately.
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Can China Return to Normalcy?
75% of China's workforce was back to work as of 24 March, stated one company's estimate. Wuhan, the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic with the rest of Hubei province lagging. Their lockdown is set to lift 8 April.
The first official train to disembark passengers in Wuhan since the lockdown reaches its destination in the Chinese city on Saturday. It reopened after more than two months of almost total isolation.
The easing of the quarantine allowed people to enter the city of 11 million and the global ground zero of the COVID-19 outbreak. This comes as China is looking to implement measures to launch its pandemic-battered economy.
China has achieved a feat despite naysayers: Bring an ignited epidemic of a respiratory virus to a virtual halt.
According to a study this week, the lockdown in Wuhan - with above 2,500 people still in the hospital - had succeeded in mitigating the widespread coronavirus outbreak and provided medical facilities critical breathing room.
Wuhan's Death Toll Could Be Higher
Government officials in Wuhan, China, recorded 2,535 fatalities in the city due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. However, some citizens argue against the official death toll, citing an increase in the shipment of urns to the Wuhan's eight funeral homes.
Most of China's cases were registered in Wuhan, with above 67,000 people being infected with the virus in the province of Hubei.
Wuhan Doctor Speaks Out
A Wuhan doctor has spoken out after witnessing many of her colleagues die from contracting the coronavirus. She criticized hospital authorities for not divulging early signs of the pandemic in an interview that censors have been trying to delete from the internet.
According to Ai Fen, director of the emergency at Wuhan Central hospital, she was rebuked after warning her superiors and colleagues of a SARS-like virus seen in patients in December 2019.
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