West Bengal amends SOP for paying last rites to COVID-19 deceased; details here

Revising its norms for the the last rites of COVID-19 deaths, the West Bengal government on Sunday issued a notification that allowed family members of the deceased to see the body and pay their respects. Relatives of people who died due to COVID-19 in the state were not allowed to see the body so far. However, the notification stated that the last rites will be performed by the civic authorities. In order to ensure the safety of the family members, the notification said that they will be provided masks and gloves by the hospitals concerned.

The development comes after the Calcutta High Court on Friday had directed the state government to file a report on allegations that bodies of patients who succumbed to COVID-19 were not cremated or buried in a respectful manner.

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Notification with immediate effect

"The dead body should be kept at a suitable place for 30 minutes during which the family members shall be allowed to pay their last respects. In case of death of a patient, the hospital shall inform the family members within one hour of death. A body cover with transparent face area shall be used. The body cover supplied earlier shall not be used," it read. The change in the practice is effective immediately, a senior official of the health department said.

Here is the full SOP:

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Covid-19 tally 

West Bengal reported 17 more COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 311 while the state also registered its highest single-day spike in cases with 435 new patients, pushing the virus count to 7,738, a health department bulletin said on Saturday. The number of active cases currently stands at 4,236.

As per the health department, at least 9,771 samples were tested for since Friday evening. The number of samples examined so far climbed to 2,61,288. Altogether 207 patients were discharged from different hospitals in the state during the period, raising the number of recoveries to 3,119.

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