Funeral assistant, Bradley Georges pulls a stretcher out of a van carrying a PPE kit before a funeral.
Miami, United States:
For a young Florida funeral home assistant, his social life is dead – his primary human interactions are with deceased coronavirus victims at his workplace.
But he does not regret his isolation.
The pandemic is “bigger than us,” said Bradley Georges, 26, an assistant at Van Orsdel funeral home in Miami.
“Mentally it’s hard, believe me. But in terms of not seeing family and friends right now, I understand,” he told AFP.
Florida, with a population of around 21 million people, has recorded more than 5,000 deaths from COVID-19.
Around 10,000 new cases are currently being reported per day, a quarter of which are in Miami, according to official figures.
Florida, along with Texas and Arizona, has become a new virus epicenter in the United States.
Georges’ constant exposure to the virus means he has not been near his mother for five months.
Instead, he moved to a sort of laundry room at the back of the house he shares with his brother.
Georges even stopped meeting in person everyone he knows, saying it’s to protect them.
“It’s my job to serve my community and do what I love to do even though I can’t see my own family and friends,” he said.
“It’s not about me. This pandemic is bigger than me, bigger than us.”
The situation in Florida seems to be getting worse by the minute: hospitals are running out of beds and remdesivir, the antiviral drug used to treat the virus, is rare.
The queues for the COVID-19 test can be long, and the results take up to 10 days to return, during which time sick people can easily infect other people.
Grayest state
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been about 25 to 30 percent more deaths in Miami, said Donald Van Orsdel, president of the funeral home that bears his name. With five branches, it is the largest such service in Miami.
“We have had some big traditional funerals, but nowhere near as many as before,” he told AFP.
Due to delays in permits to cremate the deceased, Van Orsdel’s refrigeration units are full of bodies, forcing the businessman to consider ‘alternative storage’ options.
In Tampa, on the west coast of Florida, the morgue was recently fitted with six refrigerated containers to handle the overflow of bodies. Miami took similar action in April.
Florida is sometimes referred to as the “grayest state” due to the high number of retirees who live there, drawn to the warm weather.
According to figures from the US Census Bureau, 21% of the state’s population is over 65 – an alarming concentration of people in the age group most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
According to Van Orsdel, most of the deaths from the virus brought to his funeral homes were elderly.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
