ONGOLE: THE Prakasam district administration has constituted a committee to resolve all problems related to the last rites of the Covid-19 victims. The committee will look into the problems faced by the family members of the deceased in performing the last rites following objections by locals.
Following several cases where locals have objected to performing the last rites of the Covid-19 victims fearing infection, District Collector Pola Bhaskar has formed Covid-19 victims’ funeral procedure monitoring committee, led by the RDO, to solve the problems in performing the last rites of the deceased. Municipal Commissioners, DSPs, District Medical and Health Officer, government hospital superintendents, Deputy Transport Commissioner and MPDOs are the members of the committee.
The Collector said, “The last rites of all the Covid-19 victims will be performed as per the safety protocol. All precautions and disinfection measures would be taken as per the norms. So no one needs to object to the last rites of any Covid-19 victim at any burial ground. There is no stigma attached in performing the last rites of the Covid- 19 victims.”
It may be noted that on Wednesday, a family of the Covid-19 victim and Markapur government hospital staff faced a tough time when they tried to perform the last rites of the deceased. Locals refused the last rites to be performed even when the government staff explained the safety protocol they had followed. Finally, the last rites of the deceased were performed with the intervention of police.