Guatemala burying dozens of unidentified virus dead

Guatemalan hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of COVID-19 victims who have never been identified, and one hospital is creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes, their relatives will come looking for them.

Workers at one of the country’s largest public hospitals have started photographing patients who arrive alone and too ill to give their personal details. Those who die unidentified are placed in body bags with transparent windows over the faces in case relatives finally arrive.

Protocols that call for rapidly burying the dead during a pandemic only make the situation more difficult, officials say.

The government has reported more than 47,000 confirmed infections and more than 1,800 deaths nationwide.

The first of 63 unidentified dead at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, one of the capital’s largest, died April 25 . She was in her 20s and was buried the same day.

Byron Fuentes, director of the Public Health Ministry’s Public Cemetery Administration, said that so far no one has come forward seeking any of the 41 men and 22 women they have buried, identified only as “XX.”

The hospital declined to comment on how it handles those who die unidentified.

One death certificate viewed by The Associated Press showed the person identified only as “XX XX, XX XX,” with the gender and an estimated age. For cause of death it listed acute respiratory distress syndrome and COVID-19.