The bodies of Covid-19 victims are being delivered to an ice rink that is being used as a temporary morgue in Madrid.
The regional government announced on Monday that the Ice Palace (Palacio de Hielo) in Madrid’s Hortaleza neighborhood was being prepared to act as a morgue. Spain’s Emergency Military Unit (UME) has started delivering some bodies already, authorities said.
This is a “temporary and extraordinary measure,” the regional government said, in order to “lessen the pain of the families of the victims and the situation that’s being recorded in Madrid’s hospitals.”
On Monday, the Madrid city government’s funeral service announced they would stop collecting the bodies of those who die from coronavirus as they are “without sufficient protective material,” according to a statement sent to CNN.
They said other services would continue as normal, and the funeral service would still hold cremations and burials for coronavirus victims who are “sent by other funeral services businesses in a closed coffin.”
Spain -- one of the worst-hit countries in Europe -- has now recorded 35,212 cases and 2,316 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that he would extend Spain's state of emergency for another 15 days as the number of Covid-19 deaths soared.