Workers wearing hazmat suits have been spotted burying caskets in a mass grave on New York's Hart Island - as the number of burials quadruples amid the coronavirus pandemic and the city's death roll rises to 4,778. A dozen contracted laborers were seen digging and burying the caskets - some of which had names carved on them - April 2. The city has used Hart Island to bury New Yorkers with no known next of kin or whose family are unable to arrange a funeral since the 19th century. Typically, about 25 bodies are buried there once a week by low-paid Rikers Island jail inmates. That number began increasing last month as the new coronavirus spread rapidly and New York became the epicenter of the pandemic.

The leader of a Harlem separatist church who siphoned millions of dollars in tithes from members has died. He was 44. Jermaine Grant died on April 1 after suffering from a 'brief illness' but lawyer Gerald Lefcourt shared that it was unclear whether his client died from the coronavirus. 'Sadly, Mr. Grant did pass away last week,' Lefcourt said. 'We cannot confirm whether his death was COVID-19 related.' Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ leaders did claim on social media that the 44-year-old died from COVID-19, the New York Daily News reported.

A fire broke out at a prison in the Siberian region of Irkutsk after a riot by inmates late on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported. A prison guard was attacked during the incident and has since been hospitalised, the regional office of the Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement on Friday. “Currently the situation in the facility is under control,” it said. A video shared by Russia’s Investigative Committee on Friday showed flames towering over several smaller buildings at the prison, Penal Colony 15. In another clip it showed hundreds of prisoners, surrounded by guards, gathered outside a main building of the prison. It was unclear what set off the fire. The violence broke out on Thursday evening after a prisoner, who was being held in an isolation cell after violating prison rules, refused to allow guards to conduct a search, the Irkutsk region penitentiary service said in its statement.