'Dead body carrier': Covid surge overwhelms Myanmar burial volunteers
With hospitals in junta-run Myanmar empty of pro-democracy medical staff and coronavirus cases surging nationwide, volunteers are going house-to-house to collect the fast-rising number of victims dying in their homes.
Early each morning, Than Than Soe's phone starts ringing with requests from family members of those who have died in the commercial capital Yangon.
She writes the name, address and contact number of the victim in a ledger and dispatches a team to their home.
"We are running our service without resting," she told AFP at the bustling office of her volunteer group.
Every day "my team is collecting between 30-40 dead bodies... I think other teams will be the same like us".
"Sometimes, there are two dead bodies in one house."
Hospitals around the country are empty of both doctors and patients because of a long-running strike against the military regime that seized power in February.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210719-dead-body-carrier-covid-surge-overwhelms-myanmar-burial-volunteers
