1 June 2021 02:04 am Views - 186
By Yohan Perera
The authorities of some local government bodies have given priority to cremate COVID-19 victims, limiting hours meant for cremation of deaths under normal circumstances.
However, this issue has not cropped up for the Colombo Municipal Council.
Chief Medical Officer of CMC Dr. Ruwan Wijemuni told Daily Mirror that there is no issue over allocation of crematoriums within the Colombo City since there aren’t that many COVID-19 related deaths within the city.
“There are only about two COVID related deaths every three days reported in Colombo City. Therefore there is no question of giving priority to COVID related deaths,” he said. We have had few COVID related deaths in Colombo General Hospital only during one or two days since the outbreak of the pandemic,” he said.
However the Dehiwala Mount Lavina Mayor Stanley Dias said the Municipal Council had allocated certain hours to cremate COVID-19 victims. “We have decided to cremate COVID victims from 10 am to 3 pm. Others can use the crematoriums after 3 pm. However one has to remember that the capacity of crematoriums are limited. Only three bodies could be cremated for a day, in each crematorium in the Dehiwala Cemetery,” he said.
Chairman of Sri Jayawardenepura Urban Council I. M. V. Premalal said there is no issue in the Sri Jayawardenepura area. “No one has complained to me as yet, about getting crematoriums,” he said.