A Crematorium Refuses to Handle COVID-19 Corpses

Date of Interview: Feb. 29, 2020 Location: Jining City, Shandong Province The Chinese-language Epoch Times obtained an internal document from the Municipal Government of Jining, Shandong Province, which revealed that the director of a local crematorium wrote to the municipal government, complaining that when COVID-19 patients died, local hospitals did not specify whether they are COVID-19 deaths, posing a huge risk to crematorium employees who handle these corpses. The Shandong Health Commission announced on Feb. 20, 2020 that seven prison guards and 200 inmates in the city’s Rencheng Prison were found to have been infected with the COVID-19 virus. In fact, an insider revealed to the Epoch Times that the first group of prison guards infected were confirmed on Feb. 10. Jining is not a big city and is far away from Hubei Province, the epicenter of COVID-19 outbreak. However, the number of COVID-19 infections in Jining is among the highest for a city of its size due to the outbreak within Rencheng prison. The Chinese-language Epoch Times reached the director of a crematorium in Jining on Feb. 29, 2020. The following is the undercover interview. - Journalist: Hello, director. I would like to follow up with you regarding the issue you complained about twice. Has the issue been resolved? Are there any other problems? Director: May I know whom I am speaking to? Journalist: Our team is responsible for following up with issues brought up in the community. Director: Did you mean the specification on death certificates for crematoriums? Journalist: Right. Didn’t you mention that you don’t have enough protective suits? Director: We ordered more and they just arrived. Journalist: You reported to the local authorities to complain about the death certificates from the No. 1 Hospital and the No. 2 Hospital, right? Director: Correct. I reported this issue. Journalist: Has it been resolved? Director: We later decided that we will not handle any deaths that resulted from any form of pneumonia. We’ll let other crematoriums handle those. These deceased people actually do not belong to our jurisdiction, but previously the hospitals nonetheless chose to send them here. Journalist: The No. 1 Hospital is capable of performing the diagnosis test. Local CDC also helps with the diagnosis. They recently identified ten people who were tested positive. Director: If they have confirmed it, they should specify on the death certificate that the person died from COVID-19. If they don’t, if they claim that the cause of death is uncertain, our employees are scared, they will panic. Journalist: That indeed is a problem. Director: They should have made it clear for our staff, but they didn’t. They shouldn’t have caused such panic among our staff who don’t have much medical knowledge [to be able to identify the death cause]. If they send over a COVID-19 corpse but don’t tell us explicitly, everyone will be scared. Therefore we decided not to handle any patients who died from any form of pneumonia. Journalist: So now are the corpses sent to other crematoriums? Director: I don’t know the details. I don’t know where these hospitals are sending the corpses to now. The note they put on the certificate says, “pneumonia/uncertain.” They’re all like that. The word “uncertain” makes our staff panic. Why do they claim it’s pneumonia and at the same time tell us they are uncertain about it. Actually I learned about it from my employees. I haven’t seen such a death certificate myself. Journalist: How many corpses have you handled that were labeled “uncertain”? Director: You’ll have to ask our on-site manager to find out the details. He knows it. I’ll give you his number. Director: I think we have handled four or five such cases. You can confirm with the on-site manager, and find out how the hospitals describe the death cause, “pneumonia/uncertain,” on the certificates. It was the on-site manager who told me this. I then called the Mayor’s hotline, asking the municipal government to discuss this issue with the two hospitals. Journalist: You know, th