COVID: Sri Lankan Army affords assist to ease burden on crematoriums, morgues

The Sri Lankan Army mentioned on Sunday it was prepared to supply assist to ease the burden on the nation’s crematoriums and morgues which are working extra time to take care of an rising variety of deaths reported as a consequence of COVID-19.
The Sri Lankan authorities on Saturday warned its individuals to remain indoors to curb the extremely transmissible delta variant of coronavirus that’s quickly spreading throughout the nation.
The warning got here because the nation recorded its 5,000th demise from the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday. In latest weeks, the variety of coronavirus instances and deaths have seen a exceptional enhance and the well being authorities are grappling with an overload of instances at hospitals.
Army Commander Gen Shavendra Silva mentioned on Sunday mentioned the senior well being officers have been knowledgeable of the Army’s readiness to assist.
“In the event of any crisis situation with regard to crematoriums and morgues, we have informed the director-general health services that the Army could step in to help,” mentioned Silva, who heads the nationwide operations heart for COVID prevention.
“We could talk to the relatives and decide if the need is for cremation or burial,” he mentioned.

Silva mentioned that it was the Army that dealt with the burials for the reason that outbreak of the pandemic.
The morgues are operating out of capability with the restricted freezer functionality being careworn. Crematoriums’ opening is proscribed to quite a few hours and our bodies can’t be cremated with no break. This has brought on issues in dealing with an rising variety of cremations per day.
The Army chief mentioned the state of affairs was grave solely in Colombo. Sri Lanka, which has recorded over 3 lakh COVID-19 instances, skilled its third wave in mid-April.