With the dead arriving faster than they can be cremated or buried, the mortuaries at W. Uden & Sons are packed with coffins, many pinned with a sign: 'COVID-19 - TAKE PRECAUTIONS.' Inside one London funeral home as UK deaths surge: reut.rs/3tgYyfy 📷 @hannahmckay88 1/7 
@hannahmckay88 Britain has recorded more COVID deaths per capita than any other country, but funeral director Matthew Uden said he refused to be numbed by the escalating toll: 'These are people's loved ones, they're not numbers' 2/7
@hannahmckay88 During the pandemic's first wave last spring, Uden said it took a week and a half to arrange a funeral. Now, families wait four or five weeks as mortuary and registry staff struggle to process the sheer volume of deaths 3/7
@hannahmckay88 The company already has 130 funerals booked for February, among them an unusual number of 'double funerals,' of husbands and wives who die around the same time. One couple had been married for over 50 years and died of COVID within an hour of each other, he said 4/7
@hannahmckay88 Embalmer Mary Evans wears heavy-duty PPE as she prepares an elderly COVID victim, and doesn't move the body more than necessary in case the lungs expel infected air droplets 5/7
@hannahmckay88 'When we see a deceased who has died from COVID and been very severely ill, it isn't very nice,' said Evans. She said her work allowed families to 'see their loved ones at rest, looking as peaceful as they can' 6/7
@hannahmckay88 Uden saw signs of hope and resilience, despite households being isolated. He said whole neighborhoods often stand silently as a hearse carries someone away: 'Even though we're not together, it's bringing a real togetherness.' Read more: reut.rs/3ozcCgJ 7/7
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