Coronavirus: Mosques set up temporary mortuaries to cope with surge in COVID-19 deaths

At least 10 mosques in the UK have set up temporary mortuaries to cope with the number of deaths from coronavirus, Sky News has learned.

With large numbers of COVID-19 deaths in cities with large Muslim populations, like Birmingham and London, mosques have been inundated with requests for burials.

One mosque in Birmingham told Sky News they are now carrying out 25 funerals a week because of coronavirus, which is what they’d normally do in a year.

Green Lane Masjid said they have to Islamically prepare at least five bodies a day because of the surge of deaths within their community.

The mosque’s prayer halls, which would usually be filled with worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan, are now filled with coffins, waiting for those who have succumbed to the virus.

And in the car park, to cope with demand, a 40ft refrigerated container has been drafted in to store 30 extra bodies.

Abid Khan is one of the lead volunteers at the mosque. He runs a team of 40 people.

He told Sky News: “We’ll normally on average do between 20 to 25 funerals a year, we’ve been averaging that many a week.”

Mr Khan’s day job is as an optometrist, but now he’s working here seven days a week, risking his life.

He added: “We now do five or six funerals a day. Including collections of bodies from hospitals and homes. We’ve had pickups in the middle of the night, with teams going out in out-of-hours and they pick up the deceased from homes or care homes in the community.”

People who run the funeral service at the mosque don’t know how long the refrigerated container will have to stay there.

Mr Khan said: “Because of the COVID-19 crisis there’s been a massive increase in the number of deaths and we’ve had to bring in a container.

“This container can store up to 30 bodies that we’ve specially had racked out. It’s a massive increase in terms of our capacity.”

The Muslim community has been hit hard by the pandemic in Birmingham; many families have lost loved ones and Green Lane Masjid, among the largest in the country, is one of the very few mosques offering a funeral service during this outbreak.

Salim Ahmed, head of welfare services, said: “It’s heartbreaking. We never imagined that our mosque would have to run this kind of service.

“I’ve been a part of the congregation here for many years and coming to the mosque brings about positive feelings, happy feelings and emotions, now it’s sad. To imagine there’s people here who’ve died from COVID-19, it’s a really worrying time.”

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He added: “So many people around the country are scared about getting the virus. You’ve got volunteers coming in every day here, having to handle deceased COVID bodies.

“Loved ones of families have passed away and the way we have to see it is we’re giving them that service, one they really need. They need that dignity of their loved ones that have passed away so it’s really important that we can help.”

But this has also had a serious impact on a number of the volunteers who every day are having to deal with dead COVID-19 patients.

Abid Khan told Sky News: “It’s been difficult, but you have to detach yourself from it and treat it as a job almost.

“There is a core group of four guys who work here at the mosque who have dealt with this as part of that. We’ve supported each other.

“There’s things that we’ve seen, and things we’ve had to do, that we wouldn’t be able to discuss beyond that circle because they just wouldn’t be able to understand.”

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(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Mosques set up temporary mortuaries to cope with surge in COVID-19 deaths