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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.

Workers at the San Lorenzo Tezonco municipal cemetery on Mexico City’s east side said in interviews with The Associated Press that they have buried more bodies in past weeks than they have ever seen before.

Antonio García 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.

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,” García said. “We bury the coffins with the fear of catching it. We have families to protect. ”

“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.”