The Pune Municipal Corporation has said that bodies of Covid-19 victims dying at home must be handled by relatives themselves and the the civic body will help them in the process. As per the authorities, the ward officer for each locality will provide the body bag and four PPE kits to the relatives. As per the rules issued, the relatives should wear the kit while packing the body in the bag and loading it onto the hearse van, said a NDTV report.
Besides, the relatives will also have to upload the medical certificate specifying the cause of death, along with their insurance form for Covid-related duties, on the municpal corporation's website to receive a cremation pass. Along with it the Aadhar cards of the dead person and of those relatives handling the body are also to be submitted in the process, said PMC Chief Engineer Srinivas Gangaram Kandul.
In a video message, Kandul said that the local ward officer and the ward medical officer must post the details of the death on the Pune Municipal Corporation's WhatsApp group created for the purpose.
He further said that on reaching the crematorium, however, officials will handle the body, including unkoading from the vehicle. "The relatives will received the remains around an hour after cremation. Not more than 10 people will be allowed at the crematorium," Mr Kandul added.
Meanwhile, Pune on March 31, recorded the highest-ever single-day spike with 8,553 new infections and 31 deaths. The city contributed almost 21% of all cases in Maharashtra and over 11.82% to India's figures.
Overall, Maharashtra recorded a total 39,544 cases with 227 deaths. India today saw the biggest daily surge in Covid cases since early October with 72,330 fresh infections reported since yesterday, taking the overall figure to 1,22,21,665. Amid a huge spike in covid cases, the state government of Maharashtra has warned of another lockdown. Several districts of the state have been put under partial lockdown, night curfew and other restrictions.
