GEORGE TOWN – Authorities in Penang face a delicate situation as at least 17 bodies of Covid-19 victims have not been claimed and are languishing in Penang Hospital’s mortuary.
State Welfare, Caring Society and Environment exco Phee Boon Poh said that several of the deceased do not have any identification papers, and are also believed to have been migrants.
The local authorities are unable to obtain appropriate clearance from the relevant embassies for the bodies to be buried or cremated.
The clearance is needed in part to determine if the body is that of a Muslim or non-Muslim in order to be given the relevant funeral rites.
Phee said that under new guidelines drawn up due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the bodies can be cremated.
A police report will be made for each case, with the death registered and photos of the victim’s body documented and filed, he told The Vibes.
To accord respect to the unknown dead, a simple ceremony will be held before the cremation.
However, the state still has the problem of where to keep the remains after cremation, as there is no location yet to place the urns.
The state has turned to privately operated community facilities to provide “low-cost” spaces where the ashes of the victims can be kept until such a time when their relatives come to claim them.
“I had to ask United Hokkien Cemeteries (UHC) to do us a favour and provide us ‘low-cost housing’ (for the urns),” he said.
“A columbarium space costs a few thousand ringgit with more sought-after locations costing up to RM30,000.
“We have to put them somewhere, which is why I have requested the Batu Gantung Crematorium (under UHC) to do an open door, low-cost housing for them,” he said.
The idea is that instead of looking for rooms in buildings, “low-cost” homes can be made by making holes on a wall to insert the urns.
Though throwing the ashes into the sea is an easier way out, Phee believes that it is unfair to do so.
He wants to ensure that if the families of the dead come in search for them, they can identify them and take them home, Phee said.
As the death rates in the state are high, it can take a whole week to cremate a body as the only crematorium in Penang that caters to Covid-19 deaths is the Batu Gantung crematorium.
One occasion, he said, saw 27 bodies that had to be cremated in a day. The situation was so pressing that the bodies had to be sent to other crematoriums in Kulim and Taiping.
There are only four incinerators in Batu Gantung available for Covid-19 cases and each needs a four-hour turnover time before the next cremation.
This is needed for sanitisation and to ensure the 18 to 20-year-old machinery is not at risk of breaking down.
To date, Penang has recorded 1,530 deaths due to Covid-19, 10.6% of these known to be non-Malaysians. – The Vibes, September 20, 2021.
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