A cemetery staff member offers flowers at a grave on behalf of the deceased's relatives at the Xianjuyuan Cemetery in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi province, March 26, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Shanghai's public cemeteries have received almost a million online visits since Mar 14, according to statistics released at a municipal news conference on Wednesday.

The statistics showed that members of the public made about 981,600 visits to the online memorials of Shanghai's cemeteries, while more than 20,000 families chose to purchase services where cemetery staff would pay respects to the dead on their behalf.

According to Zeng Qun, deputy director of the Shanghai Administration of Civil Affairs, the city's 54 public cemeteries have provided means for residents to visit these places virtually ahead of the upcoming Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year's Qingming Festival, a holiday when family members gather to visit the graves of their loved ones, falls on Apr 4.

Zeng added that 41 cemeteries in Shanghai have held public memorial ceremonies while the rest would hold similar events on Apr 4.

"We hope to continue with these supplementary services for the traditional practice of tomb sweeping in Shanghai as well as encourage people to gradually change their ways of remembering their deceased family members," Zeng said.