Photos: Ashes, graves — pandemic's 'last link' in Mexico

Smoke rises from the crematorium at the Panteón de San Nicolas Tolentino cemetery in the Iztapalapa neighbourhood of Mexico City. Gravediggers and crematorium workers in Mexico are struggling to keep pace as the country registers escalating coronavirus death numbers while gradually easing some restrictions aimed at curbing COVID-19.

Melvin Sanaurio, front, digs a grave at the San Lorenzo Tezonco Iztapalapa cemetery in Mexico City. Workers at this cemetery on Mexico City's east side said that they have buried more bodies in past weeks than they have ever seen before.

Antonio Garcia said he digs 15 to 20 graves per day now, and has laid to rest more than 500 coronavirus victims. His weary colleague, Melvin Sanaurio, wiped dirt from his face. "It takes me more than an hour to dig one grave," Sanaurio said. Above: Sanaurio's face is dirty after an hour of digging a grave.

The work is physically and emotionally exhausting, with workers constantly in fear of becoming infected themselves. It's made worse when they have to don white plastic anti-contamination suits that seal in the heat and sweat to lower the caskets and fill in the graves.

"Between the dust and the heat, it's suffocating," Garcia said. "We bury the coffins with the fear of catching it. We have families to protect." Above: A view of the Iztapalapa neighbourhood of Mexico City.

"The work of a gravedigger doesn't get much recognition," he said. "Instead of recognition we get abuse. We are the forgotten ones, the anonymous heroes, the last link in the chain of this pandemic."

As the two talk, a hearse pulls up with another COVID-19 victim. They are easy to distinguish because the coffins are wrapped in clear plastic, and they are taken to a special area of the graveyard designated for coronavirus burials.

The workers carry the coffin there themselves, a job that in the past might have been done by mourners. But under special rules to stem the spread of the pandemic, only two relatives are allowed to accompany the coffin to the grave.

Burials are not the same anymore, now they last as little as 15 minutes. No bands, no music, no weeping, only the strange silence, the sound of shovels hitting dry earth, which is whipped up by the wind.

In the first days of the pandemic in Mexico, in March, they cremated 15 bodies per day. By May, that had risen to between 30 and 35 per day.

The government, meanwhile, is seeking a balance. It formally ended its social distancing rule and is taking other steps to reopen the economy while still urging Mexicans to maintain most of the measures designed to protect them from the new coronavirus.

As of Sunday night, Mexico had reported 13,699 COVID-19 deaths and 117,103 confirmed cases, though authorities acknowledge actual infections are far more numerous.

Arturo Morales Torres (pictured) is a city employee who oversees 10 cemeteries in the eastern borough of Iztapalapa. "In the last few months burials have increased 40% and cremations have gone up 30% because of COVID-19," Morales said.

"I have had the misfortune of receiving the bodies of people I worked with. It is very painful, to see their families crying. They didn't even have time to say goodbye," he said. "It is very sad, they are our friends and it hurts, but we have to bury them." Above: A man holding an urn watches the body of a family member who died of COVID-19 get taken to the crematorium by workers.

Hearse drivers transporting the bodies of COVID-19 victims arrive at the crematorium at the Panteón San Nicolás Tolentino cemetery in the Iztapalapa neighbourhood.

A street dog sleeps amid the tombs at the San Nicolas Tolentino Pantheon cemetery.

Jorge Eduardo Morales, left, removes the body of a COVID-19 victim to be taken to the crematorium at the Panteón San Nicolás Tolentino cemetery.

Clutching a cigarette, a man holds an urn for human ashes as he watches the body of a family member, who died of COVID-19, as it is taken inside the crematorium by workers at the Panteón San Nicolás Tolentino cemetery in Iztapalapa, Mexico City.