Unclaimed body lying at K’bowila hospital for month COVID-19 deaths

The body of a Muslim who died of COVID-19 has been lying in the Kalubowila Hospital morgue for over a month as his family has refused to identnfy the deceased.

The patient died at the Kalubowila Hospital on 29 Nov. A PCR test was conducted on him revealed that he had been afflicted with COVID-19. The family members of the victim said they would not claim the body unless they were allowed to bury it. They had not even identified the body, the inquirer into deaths at Kalubowila Teaching Hospital Parinda Kotugoda said.

Police have informed of this incident to the Mount. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court and the court too has decided that the body should be cremated after being identified by the relatives.

Kotugoda said: “When we asked the relatives to identify the body, the wife and a brother refused to do so. They didn’t help with the inquiry either. So the body is still in the mortuary”

According to a gazette (2170/8) issued by the government on 11 April 2020 the bodies of those who die of COVID-19 have to be cremated within 24 hours of their deaths. The Director General of Health Services last month instructed health officials to cremate the body at government’s expense if the relatives refused to identify or accept them.

University of Ruhuna senior lecturer in forensic medicine Dr. U.C.P. Perera said that recently the body of another person was kept in a morgue for several days as his relatives refused to identify the body. Researchers subjected the body to PCR tests on several occasions and even on the fifth day after his death, coronavirus was found in his body. Perera said that keeping bodies under freezing temperatures allowed the virus to stay alive. (RK)