Gujarat: Bodies of covid patients pile at Valsad civil hospital as cases rise

Many undisposed dead bodies, wrapped in plastic sheets, have begun emitting a foul odour, reports say. According to reports, the bodies are not cremated since norms mandate the generation of post mortem reports, forcing the kin of deceased patients to wait for receiving the bodies for doing the last rites.

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): As Covid-19 cases rise exponentially across Gujarat, bodies of deceased patients are piling up in the Valsad Civil hospital.

Many undisposed dead bodies, wrapped in plastic sheets, have begun emitting a foul odour, reports say. According to reports, the bodies are not cremated since norms mandate the generation of post mortem reports, forcing the kin of deceased patients to wait for receiving the bodies for doing the last rites.

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If the patient’s report reveals the person was COVID-19, the hospital administration allows the relatives only to watch the body from a distance and does not hand it over to them.

Valsad civil hospital has 370 beds — of which, all are occupied at present. Meanwhile, several more coronavirus-infected people waiting for admission in the hospital.

Many patients who awaited admission at the hospital succumbed to the infection, without receiving any medical attention.

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Relatives of the deceased angry

Relatives of the dead have been waiting outside the hospital to take possession of the bodies to perform the cremation. They have to wait because the hospital would only give them the bodies after the post mortem report reveals the patient was not a COVID-19 infected person.

All bodies sent for last rites late in the night

After the impatient relatives of the dead patients gave vent to their anger over the delay, the hospital finally handed over those bodies of the patients whose corona report had come negative to the relatives while the bodies of corona patients were sent to the crematorium.

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