The Assam government has decided to pay up to ₹5,000 each for the last rites of COVID-19 patients whose relatives refuse to receive the body or cannot bear cremation expenses.
The amount, according to requirement, would be paid to the administration of a district from the funds provided by the State unit of the National Health Mission, an order issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department said on Thursday.
“This is in view of the difficulties communicated by the deputy commissioners regarding the cremation of COVID positive patients,” said Samir K. Sinha, Principal Secretary for Health and Family Welfare.
Quarantine rule eased
The order was issued along with another guideline relaxing the 10-day quarantine rule for those who return within 96 hours after visiting any other State. Such persons would, however, be required to take the rapid antigen test upon their return and go for home isolation or treatment if they test positive.
Keerthi Jalli, the Deputy Commissioner of southern Assam’s Cachar district, said there had been no report of people in her district refusing to take the bodies of COVID-19 victims. “Some families have faced problems when villagers did not allow them to return home after performing the last rites. But the district administration has been taking care of everything, from picking up the dead body from the medical college to performing the last rites as per rituals,” she said.
In July, the Tinsukia district authorities took the help of Protirodhi Bondhu – a volunteer force engaged by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority – to cremate a 75-year-old doctor who died of COVID-19. Hardly anyone had turned up for the cremation of the doctor, who was a popular figure.
Similarly, Karbi Anglong district’s Superintendent of Police Debojit Deuri and his team cremated a villager in June, two days after his death as no one was willing to touch his body at the district hospital morgue. The villager, Arun Kakoti, was Assam’s fifth COVID-19 fatality.
Fatalities up
Assam’s COVID-19 fatality increased to 414 on Thursday, with a total of 135,805 people having tested positive so far. The rate of detection of positive cases on Thursday was 7.74%, up from under 4% a month ago.
The State’s Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the total fatality would be almost thrice the official figure if indirect deaths linked to the infection were counted.
The Assam government had on July 11 constituted a four-member death audit board for COVID-19 in accordance with the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research. Anup Kumar Barman, who heads the death audit board, had a few days ago said people suffering from cancer, renal and other diseases testing positive at the final stages were not counted as COVID-19 fatalities.
