Corpses wash up on banks of holy river in Indian coronavirus outbreak

In India, dead bodies wash up on the banks of the country’s holiest river as coronavirus spreads everywhere.

Corpses wash up on banks of holy river in Indian coronavirus outbreak

Since the chaos of the Indian coronavirus outbreak has spread across the country, infections in the states and rural areas with the least resources are where the numbers are rising the most. And it is where disease and death are much harder to chase.

One measure of the misery, say medical workers, is that poor people are disposing of bodies in rivers because the cost of cremations has gone up.

Authorities believe this is what has happened, as a villager in northern India discovered dozens of bloated corpses washed down the Ganges River. On the border between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

It is in these states that the virus is wreaking the most havoc.

Residents found the corpses on Monday night in Chausa, a river town in Bihar.

Stunned onlookers crowded around the remains, many of them wearing brightly colored clothes.

Some locals have a custom of throwing the remains of their relatives, weighted down with stones, into the Ganges, Hinduism’s holiest river.

“I have never seen so many dead bodies,” said Arun Kumar Srivastava, a government doctor in Chausa.

In recent days he said he has seen more and more people, sometimes carrying the corpses, sometimes on their shoulders.

“In any case,” Dr. Srivastava says. “More deaths are occurring.”

The outbreak in India shows no signs of abating, with the Ministry of Health reporting more than 386,000 new cases and nearly 3,900 deaths on Tuesday.

COVID-19 deaths have spilled over, some crematoriums are charging five to 10 times the usual price for last rites.