Families of victims who have succumbed to Coronavirus (COVID-19) have up to 24 hours to collect their kin’s bodies from mortuary, failure of which they will be buried by the government.
According to Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor, piling up of bodies of COVID-19 victims is potentially infectious hence need to bury them as soon as possible.
Oduor has indicated that the government would provide logistical support including transportation to avoid the pile-up in mortuaries.
“To avoid a situation where we have so many bodies lying in the mortuary and these are bodies that are potentially infectious we came to that decision of having that directive that bodies be buried within 24 hours of death,” said Oduor during a recent interview with Citizen TV.
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He added, “As a government we are going to assist the family transport the body to the place of burial so the question of cost will not come in… Just in case nobody appears within 24 hours we are going to bury the body at the nearest cemetery to where the person died.”
Further Oduor disclosed that the bodies of COVID-19 victims are not being preserved in the mortuary so that the morticians can be protected from getting infected with the virus.
Rather, their remains are put in two body bags where the outer one gets thoroughly disinfected to prevent any infections.
Read Also: 58 Year Old KPA Employee Among Coronavirus Fatalities
So far, six people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the country including a six-year-old boy. As of today, 172 Positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, with thousands put on quarantine after coming into contact with the victims.
The Ministry of Health has reported monitoring some 1,928 people while the State is following up on 513 cases.
Ideally, health practitioners and medics at quarantine facilities are set to undergo testing immediately to prevent a further spread of the virus.
Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said on Tuesday that the medics will be offered accommodation as part of the measures to protect their families from potential exposure to the contagious disease.
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