Air quality limits on cremations are temporarily suspended in Los Angeles because of increased demand due to COVID-19. Officials say the death rate is now more than double that of pre-pandemic years.
Zhang Hai's father died of the coronavirus on Feb. 1 and was cremated. Ashes can now be picked up, but the government requires a chaperone for visits to the crematorium as well as for burials.
Cremated loved ones were in some of the thousands of homes incinerated by wildfires in October. Archaeologists and search dogs are now looking for lost urns and human cremains among the rubble.
New guidelines from the Roman Catholic Church note that the practice of cremation is increasing and recommend that ashes be buried in "cemeteries and other sacred places."