Awaiting last rites, bodies piled on each other at mortuaries

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Wearing PPE suits, we stand in the sun outside the crematorium only to be told in the evening that they cannot accept the bodies

nNEW DELHI: Inside the Covid-19 mortuary of the Lok Nayak Hospital in Delhi, there are 108 bodies. All 80 storage racks are full and there are 28 bodies on the floor, piled on top of each other, officials at the mortuary said.

Lok Nayak Hospital is the largest dedicated Covid-19 hospital in the city, and its mortuary is the repository of bodies of those who died of the coronavirus disease or are suspected to have died of it.

On Tuesday, eight bodies were returned from the Nigambodh Ghat CNG crematorium because the facility was in no position to accept more bodies as only two of its six furnaces were working.

As the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths toll mount in the Capital, the hospital’s employees are overwhelmed.

“We are yet to cremate the bodies of those who died five days ago,” a hospital official said, describing the scene in the mortuary. “The backlog of such cases

LOK NAYAK HOSPITAL OFFICIAL

is increasing every day. Wearing PPE suits, we stand in the sun in this heat outside the crematorium only to be told in the evening that they cannot accept the bodies. Today there are 28 bodies on the floor lying next to each other or piled on top of each other. Last week, there were 34 .”

The backlog in disposal of bodies has been caused by non-functioning furnaces at the crematorium, said Dr Suresh Kumar, director of the hospital.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s deputy commissioner Ira Singhal said it has now received orders to cremate bodies using wood to tackle the problem.