In almost three decades of work, the oldest burials in Sao Paulo’s largest cemetery remember having done less than 10 night burials. But since the second wave of the pandemic in Brazil worsened, this exception has become the rule.
The dizzying increase in cases and deaths in Sao Paulo in recent months has forced the mayor of the richest and most populous city in the country to adapt its funeral plan to prevent a collapse: in addition to hiring more staff and vehicles to meet demand, night shifts were authorized at four of the 22 municipal cemeteries, where 600 graves are opened every day.
One of these is Vila Formosa, the largest in Brazil and Latin America, and one of the postcards of the lethal cost of the pandemic in Brazil, where more than 360,000 people have already died from covid-19.
At 18:00 the change of guard takes place and the two huge lights powered by generators that illuminate the tombs and impregnate the place with the smell of diesel are turned on. It is the beginning of autumn and in this wooded cemetery on the outskirts of Sao Paulo the temperature is around 16 degrees.
Eight undertakers dressed in white frogs, masks and gloves arrive in two vans. They descend and form a circle around the pits, hands behind the body, no elbows; as a sign of respect they observe a minute of silence. They then go for the shovels and load the first dead of the night.
“Aren’t there relatives?” One asks. “No. He can bury,” replies another with the documents of the deceased in hand.
In May 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, the cemetery incorporated 3 excavators to open 60 pits per day. Now, there are six machines digging 200 pits per day, say the Undertakers, which extend their work until 10 p.m.
They also hired about 50 vans to load bodies, because the hearses were out of reach. The mayor denies that school transport vehicles are part of this fleet, a version that circulated widely in the local media.
– More than 300 burials per day –
Shortly afterwards a van arrives with another drawer. A large group of relatives surrounds the grave where the 57-year-old will be buried, the record says he died of covid-19.
The children of the deceased ask to put a ‘green and yellow’ shirt of the Brazilian team on the coffin. “It’s the only thing we can do,” says excitedly the undertaker holding the burial documents.
Four men begin to deposit reddish sand on the coffin, which, in seconds, is covered. The screams of pain are mixed with the sound of blades and the hum of electric generators.
Already accustomed to the presence of journalists and photographers, the Undertakers converse but ask not to be identified. Almost all vaccinated say the pandemic hit funeral administration staff more than those who worked like them in open spaces.
“I wanted this to end fast, because it’s very sad. We try not to get excited about our work, but it’s sad, it’s a lot of people, a long time,” says one of the undertakers as he takes off a pair of green gloves out of his guard.
The Vila Formosa houses more than 1.5 million corpses in its 750,000 m2. In March it reached its peak with 105 burials in a single day, three times the average before the pandemic.
On March 30, the city of Sao Paulo set a record by burying 426 people in a single day. The experience has not been repeated since then; the current average is 391 deaths and 325 burials per day.
The mayor warns that if the daily average exceeds 400 burials, it will take new measures, although it rules out that Vila Formosa will be operational 24 hours a day.
The city council is analyzing the construction of a vertical cemetery in the east, while the pictures of the Villa Formosa are filling up quickly.
The Undertakers estimate that in 12 months they already used 26 lots, an area that in pre-pandemic times would yield for more than two years of burials.
“There’s room to follow here,” says one of the men. “Now, at this rate I don’t know how long it will be.”