SAPTARI : The dead body of a woman who had been infected with COVID-19 at the Bishnupur Rural Municipality-3 in Saptari district is yet to be disposed of, although it has already been a day since she succumbed to the flu-like infection on Sunday evening.
The 62-year-old woman had died a few hours after she had tested positive for the coronavirus. She had been admitted to the Rajbiraj-based Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital last Friday after she developed a fever and common cold.
Her dead body had been kept at an isolation facility as the local unit could not manage it, according to COVID-19 Management Coordinator at the Hospital, Dr Ranajit Kumar Jha.
The bereaved family members have been staying inside the Hospital premises in absence of the body’s management. They have demanded to hand them the body if the Hospital is unable to manage it.
The procedure for managing the dead bodies of COVID-19 infected patients mandates that they be managed as early as possible and in the safest manner. So far, the Nepal Army’s trained personnel have been mostly disposing of the dead bodies in cooperation with concerned local authorities.
According to Bishnupur Rural Municipality Chairperson Leelambar Yadav, the rural municipality’s machine needed to dig a pit had recently been given away for servicing, which hindered the process for the disposal of the dead body.
The bodies are cemented in the pit to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19. Efforts were made to manage the dead body in an alternative way, informed Yadav. With this recent death, Saptari has recorded 10 COVID-19 casualties so far.
