The Delhi government has issued an SOP for disposal of the dead bodies of Covid-19 affected persons to ensure that no further infection is caused.
The SOP is an addition to the one issued last month by the city government and on the basis of the guidelines issued by the Centre on Covid-19 dead body management.
The Delhi Health Department has categorised such deaths into two categories — deaths at the hospital and death due to virus outside the health care facility.
For the death at the hospital, it said the hospital should provide trained healthcare workers to handle and pack the body.
“Hospitals should store the body in the mortuary after ensuring proper disinfection of the body and the body bag. It should decide whether to carry out an autopsy or not,” the SOP said.
It also said that the hospital should provide a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation or the burial ground to ensure that no further infection is caused.
“The trained health care workers should accompany the van. They should wear proper protective gears all the time.”
It says the van must be brought back to the hospital and disinfected before letting it go.
For the second category — death due to coronavirus outside the healthcare facility, the SOP says the relatives of the deceased should immediately inform the District Magistrate concerned, who “shall immediately inform the nearest COVID-19 designated hospital”.
The Health Department also said that if an unclaimed body was found at a public place, the Delhi Police will handle theAbody in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central government and bring it to the nearest Covid-19 hospital.
“The hospital should provide trained healthcare workers to handle and pack the body, ensuring proper disinfection of the body and body bag.”
The SOP also said that the hospital should provide a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation or burial ground to ensure that no further infection is caused.
“The trained health care worker should wear proper protective gears all the time.AThe van used must be brought back to the hospital and disinfected.”
Delhi has reported six deaths since the outbreak of coronavirus infection. The number of cases in the city are increasing constantly, however, the government says the local transmission has not started yet. Till Sunday morning, 445 positive coronavirus cases were reported in Delhi.
