DOH-6: Bury COVID-19 dead within 24 hours

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) on Wednesday said persons who died from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should be buried within 24 hours after a crematorium in Iloilo City temporarily stopped accepting cadavers.

DOH-WV CHD spokesperson Dr. Daphynie Teorima explained in a virtual presser that the regional office has provided guidelines to hospitals and crematoriums on how to handle the remains of COVID fatalities.

In the case of burials, the procedures will be provided by the local government units.

“We have provided guidelines on how to handle expired COVID positive patients since last year. These include cremation of expired bodies and the usual burial practice. However, we emphasize that we have to minimize the handling of these cadavers, and those handling the bodies have to wear protective equipment because they are exposed to increased levels of body fluids,” Teorima said.

Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe, head of the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, said the burial of expired COVID patients should be in adherence to Presidential Decree No. 856 (Sanitation Code of the Philippines) which mandates that persons who succumbed to infectious diseases must be buried within 24 hours.

“We have no other recourse. If we cannot cremate the patient, then we have to bury the body within 24 hours, for compliance with the Sanitation Code of the Philippines. I think that local governments already know this because they are the ones who are handling the disposal of (expired COVID patients),” Alonsabe said.

Gegato-Abecia Funeral Homes and Crematory owner Fely Abecia told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Wednesday that they had to stop accepting cadavers so they could finish cremating the bodies that are in storage.

Abecia said that the bulk of COVID dead bodies they cremate are from Aklan, at an average of 10 bodies per day, and they also accept bodies from Antique and Capiz.

She clarified that their facilities have not stopped operating despite their temporary closure to newer cadavers.

As of Wednesday morning, she said there were still around 20 bodies waiting to be cremated.

She added that they may be able to reopen and accept more bodies for cremation sooner than the initial two-week period she allotted to stop.

The funeral homes bought a new cremation machine that will start operating in two weeks’ time, apart from a new 40-foot container van freezer it recently ordered from Cebu.

“When we stopped accepting since Monday, it has gone down, but the operation is still going on. What they’re saying that we stopped [cremating] is false. We didn’t stop, we just didn’t want to compromise the bodies already here and those bringing the bodies that they will just keep putting [bodies] here. This is not like a fishing port where you just drop the fish,” Abecia said.

The halt to delivering bodies to the crematorium was first revealed on Tuesday when Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores alerted municipal mayors to prepare for burial grounds for COVID-19 fatalities in the province.