The Department of Health has received reports of coffins of people who died of COVID-19 being wrapped with plastic and in some cases, human remains are also wrapped inside and coffins marked with biohazard stickers prior to burial.
A meeting was convened on Tuesday 26th of
January 2021with interested and affected parties in management of human
remains. These parties included the Federations and Associations of Funeral
Undertakers and Parlours, Funeral Undertakers, Funeral Parlours, Provincial
Managers of Environmental Health, Provincial Coordinators of Forensic Pathology
Services, Municipal Health Services Managers, Environmental Health
Practitioners and National Department of Health: Environmental Health
Directorate.
The Department of Health has issued health
directions on the management of human remains that died of COVID-19 that
prescribes measures to be implemented. These directions do not prescribe the
covering of coffins with plastics, use of biohazard stickers nor wearing full
PPE by funeral directors or sanitising of the graves or clothes of people
attending the funeral as this is unnecessary.
This is unless it is prescribed as an
additional measure by the relevant municipality where the grave is excavated in
an area with a high-water table. Such additional measures are applicable to all
burials (not only COVID-19), if the water table is too high for normal burial.
The public and the industry must note that the measures prescribed are evidence
based and may change as and when new evidence is presented.
The revised guidance from World Health
Organization indicates that transmission of SARS 2 from a human remain to
people who are alive has not been proven therefore the Department is in a
process of reviewing the requirement of a body bag for burial to align to
current evidence. Human remains can be buried either in a body bag or be
wrapped in a shroud or blanket as the case may be. The body bag can be used for
medical reasons or the family may decide to bury using these body bags.
In addition to the current COVID-19 health
directions, the department has, as part of regulatory role under the National
Health Act, 2003 (Act No61 of 2003), as amended, issued regulations governing
the establishments of funeral undertakers’ premises and Mortuary, conveyance of
human remains, burial, cremation, exhumation, reburials and general provisions.
COVID-19 is a new disease which is virulent in
nature and can easily affect a huge number of people if health protocols are
not adhered to. The department has regulated the number of people that can
attend funeral gatherings to reduce the possible exposure to the disease. The
process of handling human remains affected with COVID-19 poses a risk to the
members of the public who are doing it and to their immediate families and the
community at large.
The human remains should only be conveyed to
the deceased`s home on the day of the burial and viewing is only allowed under
control environment within a mortuary or funeral undertakers` premises. These
measures are still necessary to control the spread of COVID-19 amongst
mourners.
Exhumation is a process of removing human
remains from a grave and is regulated under the regulations governing the
management of human remains promulgated on 22nd May 2013.The law states
exhumation or reburial shall not be done unless:
Authorized by the relevant government and
permitted by the relevant municipality; or
A court order is issued by a magistrate of the
court and shall be permitted by the relevant local government in whose
jurisdiction the exhumation and reburial will take place.
Members of the public wishing to exhume human
remains must do so following the provisions of the above-mentioned legislation.
Therefore, illegal exhumation of human remains is prohibited and is punishable
by law.
We appeal to all citizen of South Africa to
observe the above requirements so that as a country we can move towards
combating the spread of the disease.
Issued by: National Department of Health
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