COVID-19: In Bolivia desperate family leaves coffin in the street

La Paz, Bolivia: The rising toll of COVID-19 deaths is overwhelming the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, where desperate relatives of one apparent victim of the new coronavirus left his coffin in the street for several hours on Saturday to protest difficulties in getting him buried.

Neighbor Remberto Arnez said the 62-year-old man had died on Sunday and his body had been in his home ever since, "but that's risky because of the possible contagion."

After a few hours, funeral workers showed up and took the coffin to a cemetery.

Police Col. Ivan Rojas told a news conference that the city is collecting "about 17 bodies a day. This is collapsing the police personnel and funeral workers" in the city of some 630,000 people.

"The crematorium oven is small, that that is where the bodies are collecting," said national Labor Minister Oscar Mercado, who told reporters that officials were preparing 250 new burial plots in the city's main cemetery.

The Andean nation has reported 36,818 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,320 deaths.

A coffin wrapped in plastic holding the remains of an unidentified men, who died last week, sits on a wheelbarrow in the middle of a street.

Attached to the coffin is a sign that reads in Spanish: "Rest in peace. Seven days dead from COVID-19."

A coffin holding the remains of Cristobal Huanca Mendoza is guided by workers through a cemetery to a common grave area.

The coffin of Mendoza is wrapped in plastic as is common by funeral homes when working with COVID-19 victims or suspected victims of the new coronavirus.