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

Revising its rms for last rites of COVID-19 deaths, West Bengal government on Sunday issued a tification that allowed family members of deceased to see body and pay ir respects. Relatives of people who died due to COVID-19 in state were t allowed to see body so far. However, tification stated that last rites will be performed by civic authorities. In order to ensure safety of family members, tification said that y will be provided masks and gloves by hospitals concerned.

development comes after Calcutta High Court on Friday had directed state government to file a report on allegations that bodies of patients who succumbed to COVID-19 were t cremated or buried in a respectful manner.

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tification with immediate effect

" dead body should be kept at a suitable place for 30 minutes during which family members shall be allowed to pay ir last respects. In case of death of a patient, hospital shall inform family members within one hour of death. A body cover with transparent face area shall be used. body cover supplied earlier shall t be used," it read. change in practice is effective immediately, a senior official of health department said.

Here is full SOP:

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Covid-19 tally 

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

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

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