A FORMER chief prosecutor spoke of his heartbreak when he discovered his brother's body was kept in an industrial fridge for nine days due to a "300 body backlog".
Nazir Afzal said his older brother and ex-Home Office interpreter, Umar, 70, died from coronavirus on April 8.
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But due to there being no space in the morgue, the family had to make arrangements with a private undertaker.
Mr Afzal said the undertaker told them that he had to collect 14 bodies that day so wasn't able to collect Umar's body until 6pm – leaving his lifeless body in the bed for eight hours.
Speaking to The Sun, Mr Afzal said: "He was just turned 70 but he was in fine fettle.
"Literally, I was looking at myself and thinking ‘How did he go, not me?’ "He was extraordinarily healthy."
Both brothers had been visiting their 91-year-old mum, who was in hospital.
Mr Afzal believes his brother contracted the virus during one of these visits.
I went to where he was being kept in refrigeration and it is not a sight that I want to see ever again, body after body inside industrial fridges.
After his brother began suffering from symptoms, he was told by staff at Parkland Hospital in Birmingham to manage the symptoms at home as there wasn't enough space.
The former prosecutor said: "And it got worse. And one morning, he didn't wake up.
"Then he was in a fridge for nine days. And we finally buried him on Friday. This Friday, just gone.
"And I felt quite privileged actually, that we had that time with him at the end."
Mr Afzal spoke of his horror when he saw his brother being stored in the fridge: "I went to where he was being kept in refrigeration and it is not a sight that I want to see ever again, body after body inside industrial fridges."
It is tradition for Muslim families to bury their loved ones within 24 hours of their death.
He added: "That's where my brother and others were being stored. I'm not criticising them. We are in an emergency and you have to do this in an emergency but as I said it was almost like the icing on the cake that we were able to spend that time with him at the very, very end and we were able to bury him.
"We'd never have had that opportunity in normal times."
How did he go, not me? He was extraordinarily healthy.
Figures say that during that week of the 10th of April 18000 people died, the highest number of people that have died in this country for a long, long time.
Mr Afzal was the chief Crown prosecutor in the north-west of England who initiated prosecutions in the case of the Rochdale sex trafficking gang.
The UK death toll tragically passed 19,000 today – as England recorded another 587 fatalities.
At today's press briefing Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed drones will deliver PPE and medical supplies in a new Government trial.
Mr Shapps also announced a new package of measures including £10.5m for ferry links to Isle of Wight and Scilly Isles, and funding to ensure air links to Belfast and Londonderry.
Scientists have produced a day-by-day breakdown of the typical Covid-19 symptoms to help people better understand the illness.
Boris Johnson could return to return to work as early as Monday following his coronavirus battle in hospital.
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