Photo: File
Photo: File
The Health Department has gazetted its new set of rules in relation to handling deceased patients of COVID-19. These frank and sobering guidelines advise districts to prepare for ‘mass burials’, amongst other chilling warnings.
The publication of these rules comes just as South Africa prepares to lift its lockdown restrictions. Although forcing people to stay at home is an effective way to control the disease, it cripples economic output and ruins livelihoods. The department also revealed that the bodies of COVID-19 victims ‘can still harbour the disease’:
“The act of moving a recently deceased patient onto a hospital trolley for transportation to the mortuary might be sufficient to expel small amounts of air from the lungs and thereby present a minor risk. In the event that a person infected with COVID -19 dies at home, family members must not, at any stage, handle the body.”
Health Department
The 12-page gazette only delves further into macabre territory from here. We’re now at a stage where local districts and national authorities are being told to prepare sites for ‘mass graves’, should the death toll skyrocket.
“Only close family members should attend a funeral service of a person that died of COVID-19 or of another infectious disease. And, should the national death rate appear to exceed the capacity of available space to keep mortal remains, the Government may intervene to facilitate mass burials.”
“Municipalities should ensure that a mass burial is done in consideration of human dignity and necessary controls should be put in place to ensure that mortal remains can be identified. They should identify land that can be used for mass burial should a need arise.”
Health Department
Other key points made by the Health Department can be seen below. Their recommendations on how to properly conceal the remains of a loved one – and the strict rules on funeral etiquette in the era of COVID-19 – are a crushing reminder of the true horrors caused by this devastating illness.