Crematoriums full, long queue on streets': Satellite images show spike in Covid deaths in China

As China grapples with a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases, satellite images show crowds outside crematoriums after a huge number of deaths were reported

(SAI Bureau) The recent surge in Covid infections in China is faster than ever. The number of deaths at China’s crematoriums and funeral homes accounts for a significant portion of global deaths from coronavirus.
Although Chinese authorities have censored most videos of mourners and long queues of crematoriums from social media, recent satellite images are substantial proof of the surge in deaths due to Covid.As the world completes almost three years of Covid, the virus continues to haunt scores of people and operations at airports, hospitals, and markets, affecting the global economy and people’s minds. China recently scrapped its strict zero-Covid policy towards SARS-Cov-2, which sparked mass unrest after more than two years of strict control on its citizens. Beijing’s zero-Covid policy in 2022 often faced the wrath of domestic protests and criticism from the international community for further hampering the world economy.
China’s current wave of infections has been fueled by the lack of herd immunity in the population, most of which were not exposed to the coronavirus for years because of the country’s strict controls. Likely, many elderly citizens have not yet received a full course of vaccines or booster shots.
China has reported only 5,200 Covid deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, and even fewer than 40 deaths were attributed to Covid since Beijing lifted Xi Jinping’s strict zero-Covid policies. But the "projections made by international experts put the real death toll closer to 5,000 people per day, with several models predicting more than one million Covid deaths in China by the mid of the year 2023,” reports The Washington Post.
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW CROWDS AT CHINA’S CREMATORIUMS
The images – which were taken by Maxar in late December and early January and first reviewed, and reported by CNN – show “a funeral home on the outskirts of Beijing, which appears to have constructed a brand-new parking area, as well as lines of vehicles waiting outside of funeral homes in Kunming, Nanjing, Chengdu, Tangshan, and Huzhou.”
The satellite images are consistent with CNN’s reporting and other witness accounts such as shared on his Twitter account of Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher, shared on his Twitter concerning overcrowding in funeral homes and crematoriums.
Damien Symon recently posted collated satellite imagery of mainland China, where a huge number of Covid-related funerals and vehicles were seen outside crematoriums of major cities captured by Maxar Technologies.
Satellite imagery of funeral homes in cities such as Kunming, Yunnan Province, Nanjing, Jiangsu Chengdu, Sichuan Tangshan, Hebei, Huzhou, Zhejiang, and Tonggzhou shows a huge number of vehicles in a queue on the streets. These satellite images and media reports suggest that hospitals and funeral homes are overwhelmed due to a recent outbreak of Covid in Beijing. China has faced accusations from the WHO and the United States that it has not been sharing the actual ground situation of a sudden spike in Covid deaths due to the current outbreak.