CUTTACK: Unclaimed bodies of coronavirus victims has become a challenge for authorities of SCB Medical College and Hospital. With families of patients succumbing to the virus not coming forward to claim the bodies, the authorities of SCB’s designated Covid hospital are unable to complete the necessary formalities.
In several cases where families of Covid victims do not turn up at the hospital, the authorities have no option but to mark the bodies as ‘unclaimed’ before shifting them to cremation ground.
Take the case of an elderly woman from Jagatsinghpur, who was admitted to the Covid hospital a few days back. The woman’s relatives, after admitting her at the facility, returned home. When she died three days back, none of them could be contacted on the mobile phone number given at the time of her admission. The relatives and families’ consent is required to shift the body to cremation ground.
“As we need to complete some legal formalities and documentation for shifting of the body, we took the help of police to contact her relatives,” said the doctor treating the woman. After police got in touch with the woman’s son, the latter turned up at the hospital following which the documentation was completed and the body shifted to Sati Chaura crematorium.
The doctor said this is not an isolated case. In several instances, the relatives neither respond to the authorities’ phone calls nor turn up at the hospital.
Mangalabag IIC Amitav Mohapatra said such incidents have gone up in the last one month.
“We have been urging the relatives to come forward and complete the formalities but in many cases, they do not. In such instances, we have to take the help of police to trace the relatives and families of the deceased,” he said, adding in some cases where the exercise to trace the families of the deceased turns futile, the bodies are cremated after being labelled as unclaimed.
As per reports, around 1,300 bodies were cremated at Sati Chaura crematorium while adhering to Covid protocols from May 1 to 31. Of them, as many as 363 were ‘unclaimed’. Usually, 10 to 15 unclaimed bodies are cremated in the city in a month.