GR govt. made wrong decision to cremate COVID dead, study reveals

• In July 2021, a study was conducted to identify the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aquatic environments. It was revealed in this study that there was no virus in the surface water

The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government made a wrong decision to forcefully cremate the COVID dead, after recent research found that the virus had not spread in the surface water.  

In a cabinet paper released yesterday, it stated that in July 2021, a study was commenced by the Ministry of Water Supply with the assistance of University of Sri Jayawardenepura to identify the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aquatic environments in Colombo and Kandy including the river water, the water released from the hospitals, other quarantine places and other potential places where the waste water was discharged. It was revealed in this study that there was no virus in the surface water.

A second study was also completed in March 2024 by the China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Centre for Water Technology under the Ministry of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development that investigated the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus to water resources including the ground water and it was confirmed that the faeces and the urine are the primary source of the transmission of the virus but not with the safe burial.   

Accordingly, the cabinet of Ministers has approved the joint proposal presented by the Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitution Reforms, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development to apologize on behalf of the Government, to all communities effected as a consequence of compulsory cremation policy enacted in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic period.  

Meanwhile, as stipulated in the guidelines published by the Ministry of Health on the Clinical Management of COVID-19, cremation was made compulsory of the persons who died due to the COVID-19 virus.   

The decision created displeasure among the various religious groups, human rights activists and the Muslim community in particular.   

Therefore, in order to prevent such a situation in the future, attention has been drawn to introduce a law, whereby the choice to bury or cremate will be left at the discretion of the family members of the deceased.