Jan 12, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (AP) The phone rang over the gurgle of embalming fluid as Geoff Burke wearily eyed the corpse of the woman on the gurney. Another victim of the coronavirus, she’d have to wait. On the phone, a nurse delivered the news: body pickup needed.
Passing the cremation oven, still hot from the morning’s use, Burke changed from his plastic embalming apron to a necktie and collared shirt as Sunday football commentators bantered on the television. As he prepared the hearse outside, his phone rang again. Second body pickup needed at a nursing home outside Lewistown. Coronavirus again.
By Oona Goodin-Smith, Jason Nark, Dylan Purcell and Tim Tai
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA The phone rang over the gurgle of embalming fluid as Geoff Burke wearily eyed the corpse of the woman on the gurney. Another victim of the coronavirus, she’d have to wait. On the phone, a nurse delivered the news: body pickup needed.
Passing the cremation oven, still hot from the morning’s use, Burke changed from his plastic embalming apron to a necktie and collared shirt as Sunday football commentators bantered on the television. As he prepared the hearse outside, his phone rang again. Second body pickup needed at a nursing home outside Lewistown. Coronavirus again.
In April, as the coronavirus gripped portions of southeastern Pennsylvania, western and central counties remained largely unaffected, but that has now changed.
Rural Pennsylvania struggles to cope with COVID-19 surge sfchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With the devastation seemingly far-removed, mask wearing was often seen as political, and the mitigation efforts frivolous in towns largely untouched by the virus.