Kenya Government to Dispose of Bodies of Covid-19 Victims if Not Picked Within 24 Hours

The government will dispose of bodies of coronavirus victims if their families fail to pick the remains within 24 hours, chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor has said.

Oduor said families of the victims will be given 24 hours to pick and bury their loved ones failure to which the government will inter them at the nearest cemetery.

This is part of the measures the government has put in place to ensure mortuaries are not congested with bodies that are potentially infectious, Oduor added.

“To avoid a situation where we have so many bodies lying in the mortuary and these are bodies that are potentially infectious we came to that decision of having that directive that bodies be buried within 24 hours of death,” Oduor said.

“As a government, we are going to assist the family transport the body to the place of burial so the question of cost will not come in… Just in case nobody appears within 24 hours we are going to bury the body at the nearest cemetery to where the person died,” he added.

To protect morticians from contracting the virus, Oduor said bodies of Covid-19 victims are not being embalmed. Instead, the remains are stacked in two body bags that are thoroughly disinfected to prevent any infections.

“Embalming is discouraged because this means when the body comes to the mortuary the mortician will start to manipulate it and in the process, there will be splashes that will potentially carry infection.”

The government has restricted burials of Covid-19 victims to a maximum of 15 close family members to ensure social distancing is maintained.