The three-week waits to bury victims

GRIEVING relatives of coronavirus victims who have died at home have faced heartbreaking delays of days or even weeks for their loved ones’ bodies to be released for burial or cremation.

The hold-ups occur if deaths have to be referred to a coroner to determine the cause of death because the deceased had been self-isolating and had not seen a doctor for several days. In the case of nurse Donald Suelto, 51, who is thought to have contracted Covid-19 working at Hammersmith Hospital, west London, it took three weeks for his body to be released.

Another affected by the delays was former chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal, whose brother Umar, 71, could not be buried for nine days because of backlogs with the Birmingham coroner. He said: ‘Coroners are having to work triply hard to deal with the backlogs, funeral directors and cemeteries the same.’

A spokesman for Judge Mark Lucraft, QC, chief coroner for England and Wales, said the service has been under significant pressure but was doing ‘all it can’ to deal with the caseload.