Chronicle Editor
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE Government has banned the holding of night vigils at funerals as part of efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This follows a recent directive that movement of bodies, while allowed, will have to be as per prescribed health precautions which include that the body be transported in a sealed coffin. In a circular sent to provincial health directors and city health directors, the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Robert Mudyiradima said all funerals must now be supervised to reduce the risks of spreading the Covid-19 pandemic. Gatherings have been limited to not more than 30 people.
“All funerals should be supervised during the Covid-19 pandemic to minimise the spread of Covid-19 in our communities. Gatherings should not be more that 30 people, people should not gather during the night.
Handshaking and hugging should not be done, the funeral should be done in the shortest time possible and they should list full names, addresses, age, sex, phone details of people attending the funerals,” reads the circular.
Last month, the Government also directed that police will only clear body movements for burial straight from a funeral parlour or hospital mortuary to the burial site.
“No body viewing will be allowed. Bodies will not be taken home. The public is urged to keep a distance of four metres as the body is lowered into the grave by either city health of funeral parlour officials. For those who want to transport the body for burial outside the city or town of death, they should ensure that the body is hermetically sealed in a triple coffin before collection of body from funeral parlour or hospital mortuary,” said the government.
Mpilo hospital acting chief executive officer, Professor Solwayo Ngwenya commended the move to further curtail funerals saying more needed to be done especially regarding the burials of Covid-19 bodies.
“When people die from the pandemic, we are not treating the bodies properly, we are allowing the bodies to be buried in a normal way, but Covid-19 deaths are not at all normal. Covid-19 bodies are not supposed to have any vigils. They are not supposed to have all these funeral processions that we are seeing. Most of the time before these people die due to the pandemic, they infect the nearest people, for example those who took them to the hospital, when you then have that funeral vigil, these very people mix with the uninfected thereby further spreading the pandemic,” said Prof Ngwenya.
He said there was a need for the country to ensure that when a person dies of the pandemic, they do not infect loads of people in the name of burying them.
“By allowing these burials we are actually making it worse as these funerals end up becoming super spreaders. We therefore must have a drastic change in burying Covid-19 victims and that can only be done by policymakers.
“What we have to strive on addressing as a country is the reproductive rate of this virus where, through judging by clinical tests, one person can infect three people but what is meant to be the case is that if someone dies due to the pandemic they should die and be buried without exposing other people,” said Prof Ngwenya.
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