‘Burial of suspected COVID-19 patient legal’

By Felipe V. Celino 

 

ROXAS CITY, Capiz – The burial of a suspected COVID-19 patient who died Sunday afternoon in a cemetery at Brgy. Banica here was legal.

City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Dennis Saneo said they secured permission from the City Health Office before the deceased patient was buried.

He said that under the guidelines of the Department of Health (DOH), there is no need to coordinate with local government units on the burial of suspected or confirmed COVID patients.

Besides, there was a vacant lot and the family had reserved a niche for their members.

Saneo also denied that the responders of the Roxas City Emergency Response Team (RCERT) were not wearing Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) during the burial.

It may be recalled that the burial of the deceased patient caused a verbal tussle between officials of Barangay Banica here and members of the RCERT under the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) at Banica Public Cemetery.

This after some of the residents of Banica got worried because the burial of the deceased from Brgy. Dayao here was done about 8 pm Sunday.

The village police proceeded to the area where the deceased was buried and saw the RCERT personnel and members of the families.

The barangay tanods asked the RCERT personnel for some documents and identification cards to prove that they were members of the CDRRMO.

The RCERT personnel told the tanods that they have permission to bury the deceased, but the tanods wondered why they had to do it in the evening and some of them were not wearing protective gears.

The village officials said that it was not the first time that uncoordinated burials happened in the area.

It was learned that the swab test result of the deceased has yet to be released.