Hyderabad:Incidents of people hindering burials or cremations of COVID-19 victims are being reported from across the country.
The major reason for this is the lack of public awareness and misconceptions over burial and cremation of COVID-19 victims.
Myth: Dead body of COVID-19 patient can transmit the novel coronavirus
The interim guidelines issued by the WHO in late March (the Government of India too issued the directive on March 15) this year, on Infection Prevention and Control for the safe management in the context of COVID-19 is quite simple and clear.
Dead bodies do not transmit disease. A dead person cannot sneeze or cough or breathe. So, the common ways of spreading the infection end the moment a person dies. Viral replication also stops. The skin may contain viral particles, and therefore, the body has to be neatly wrapped in a cloth, and no need for a body bag. Only the healthcare workers preparing the dead body and the mortuary staff need to wear PPE. So long as there is no touch, there is a zero percent chance of spread of infection.
Hence, both burning or burying a dead body is safe. The virus cannot climb up from the 8 feet deep pit. Neither can it survive the 4,000 degrees centigrade fire in the crematorium. In addition to that, fumes don't carry the virus. These simple messages, if communicated properly to the public, could have averted indignities to doctors and people who were refused a proper burial or cremation.
Chronology of incidents involving people stopping cremation or burials of COVID-19 victims
23.04.2020
The health authorities in Dakshina Kannada district drove more than 40 kilometres from one village to another in search of a burial ground, after residents refused to allow the cremation of the COVID-19 patient.
The local MLAs chose to stand with the people instead of persuading them that the burial or cremation, as per the COVID-19 guidelines, was safe. A 75-year-old woman (P432) from Kasba in Bantwal taluk died of COVID-19 in Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, four days after her daughter-in-law (P390) died due to the same disease.
The district administration arranged for the cremation of P432, the locals in Pacchanadi in Mangaluru protested and drove out the officials. The ordeal continued late through the night as the body was shunted from one crematorium to the other as villagers in Moodushedde and Nandigudde too put up resistance. Finally, the body was taken back to Bantwal and cremated at the Kaikunje burial ground amid protests from the locals there too.
19.04.2020
Dr Simon Hercules, a prominent neurosurgeon from Chennai, had died after a two-week battle with Covid-19. Civic officials granted permission for his body to buried at a cemetery in Kilpauk area. But outside the graveyard, an angry crowd afraid of being infected by the virus forced the ambulance to turn away.
The ambulance then turned towards a burial ground in Anna Nagar, were protesting locals not only blocked its path but also attacked with sticks and stones. They broke the vehicle’s windows and injured the driver, a sanitation worker, and a civic official, forcing everyone in the ambulance to abandon the body for a while and seek safety.
Late into the night, three of Hercules’ colleagues, dressed in complete protective gear, returned to the cemetery with a police escort and buried the doctor themselves.
15.04.2020: