PHIs’ union exposes undertakers who fleece families of Covid victims

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Handling 2,300 new COVID cases a day was a significant challenge to the health sector, Deputy Director General of Health Services, Dr. Hemantha Herath told the media yesterday.

Dr. Herath made the observation when a journalist asked about a decreasein the number of COVID cases. Around 2,300 new cases were reported on Wednesday (15).

“We have to bring these numbers further down. In 2020 we had a situation where there were no local cases. The only new cases we found at that time were those who had returened from overseas. There was also a time when only a few hundred cases were detected a day. I think we must reduce the cases to at least a few hundred a day. Then only can we heave sigh of relief,” he said,

Head of the Public Health Inspectors Union (PHIU) Upul Rohana urged the government to prevent certain private funeral parlours from involving in the disposal of bodies of COVID victims.

“In the CMC area and some other towns, certain private funeral parlours are involved in the process of burying and cremating COVID victims. This has led to many issues and people are getting fleeced. We think that it’s best if the government handles the process because this will stop a lot of problems and irregularities.’

The PHIU head said that some local councils were charging for cremations. There have been several occasions where grassroots level religious and community leaders had to collect money to help the poor.

“I request the government to return the money spent by poor families for cremating the family members who died from COVID. It will be a great relief for the poor people who are suffering immensely.”