The death of a 76-year-old man in Karnataka due to COVID-19 has raised several questions about the precautionary measures the state government is taking as far as burying the body is concerned. The Kalaburagi man’s death is the first in India due to the coronavirus.
The Karnataka government has come up with a set of protocols to follow during the funeral procedure. Commissioner of the Health Department Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that the body of the 76-year-old man was disinfected and the burial was carried out in the presence of health workers with necessary precautionary measures.
“This is the first death that has happened and we are following WHO (World Health Organisation) protocols for body disposal. But we must also respect the religious sentiments of people. In the case of the 76-year-old man, he was buried and his body was disinfected before burial. It was done by health workers in the presence of district officials. His family members were allowed to be present at a safe distance. The graveyard was sanitized as well,” he said.
He said that both burial and cremation will be allowed in order to respect religious sentiments of people.
What is the protocol for health workers during burial of the dead?
The state government has prescribed certain procedures to be followed by health workers who will come into contact with the body of the patient. According to Dr BG Prakash, of the Health Department, the team handling dead bodies should wear protective gear and wash their hands with soap and disinfectant after touching the body.
Sources from the health department said that the government wanted to ensure the “dead and bereaved must be respected at all times” and hence certain protocols have been issued for burials as certain religious communities do not cremate their loved ones who die. Crematoriums, however, will be disinfected after the cremation process.
The health workers must ensure that the graves must be at least 30m away from the ground water source. The bottom of a grave must be at least 1.5 m above the water table in addition to having a 0.7 m unsaturated zone. Surface water from graveyards must not be disposed off in inhabited areas. This means that water used in graveyards which later flows out as sewage must not mix with municipal sewage.
“We are following these protocols to ensure that the burial does not lead to contamination of drinking water,” Dr Prakash added.
Health workers must take precautions for disposal of gloves, body bags and disinfect the vehicles and equipment used while transporting the body from the isolation units to the graveyard.
“Bodies of the dead do not generally need to be disinfected before disposal except in cases where the infection is severe. This is followed for viral infections generally. Since this is a pandemic, disinfecting the body is protocol. So far only one death has happened. We are trying to avoid having more deaths,” he said.
Health Department Officials told TNM that so far, the protocols have been framed to handle individual burial cases only. “We don’t want to cause panic and have taken precautionary measures to reduce person-to-person contact as much as possible. There are procedures for mass burial and cremation. We will give those details if the situation arises. So far we are trying to contain the spread,” he said.