French Skating Rink Turned Into COVID-19 Morgue

Story By: Ernest Bio BogoreSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

A skating rink has been turned into a makeshift morgue as France continues to see an increasing number of COVID-19 deaths.

The skating rink in the commune of Ales in the French department of Gard has been turned into a makeshift mortuary out of fears local morgues and funeral homes will be overrun.

According to the newspaper Midi Libre, the ice rink was prepared to start accepting corpses as of the morning of 5 November.

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The Hospital Centre Ales-Cevennes said that 21 people have died of the virus during the second wave, 10 more than the first outbreak.

However, hospital officials confirmed that the mortuary was not yet at saturation point, adding that the skating rink was in no way a morgue, according to Le Dauphine Libere.

Ales ice rink president Christophe Rivenq said that the rink “has been kept on ice” since the spring “just in case”.

The South Pole skating rink in Grenoble could also be requisitioned if necessary, according to Le Dauphine Libere.

Gard chief of staff Denis Bruel said: “If the health crisis was to worsen and cause a huge increase in deaths that the general undertaker and Inter-communal Funeral Home could not cope with, we would indeed consider this type of action.

“But this is still only a plan we hope we won’t need to resort to.”

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