Health minister Zweli Mkhize made an impassioned plea to bereaved families to refrain from handling the corpses of loved ones who died from Covid-19.
Mkhize made the call at a media briefing while he was visiting health facilities in Durban on Monday.
He warned South Africans that “touching” their relatives’ corpses before burial could result in the spread of the virus.
“We would like to keep the management of the body hygiene to the funeral parlours who have a clear understanding of all the regulations.
“As painful as it is – we do understand that it is painful – we shouldn’t start touching the body.
“Going to wash the body and viewing the body, there is a procedure that must be done with supervision of those who are trained.”
This comes as communities made a call to government to revisit Covid-19 burial protocols, claiming they interfere with traditional practices.
We do understand that it is painful, but we shouldn’t start touching the body.
— Dr Zweli Mkhize
This includes the bathing and dressing of the corpses by their families.
According to a recent TimesLIVE report, some Eastern Cape families have been defying Covid-19 regulations by exhuming the corpses of people who died after contracting the coronavirus, saying the plastic used to encase the corpses suffocates their dead relatives.
The Faleni family in Nkwenkwana village in Ngcobo said they had not slept peacefully since burying a loved one who had succumbed to the virus.
They recently hired 10 men to exhume the body to remove the plastic cover.
Last week President Cyril Ramaphosa cautioned South Africans against exceeding the allowed number of mourners at funerals during his address of the nation on the government’s response to the pandemic.
According to current lockdown restrictions, no more than 50 people are allowed to attend a funeral service.
Ramaphosa stressed that funerals continued to be among “superspreader” events for the disease.
“Providing a fitting send-off for a departed loved one is deeply ingrained in all of us.
“There are certain rituals that we perform in line with our respective cultures and traditions; not just at the funeral itself but in the days leading up to the burial. But these are all things we simply cannot do at this time,” said Ramaphosa.
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