Everywhere the coronavirus has struck, regardless of culture or religion, ancient rituals to honour the dead and comfort the bereaved have been cut short or abandoned for fear of spreading it further.at the age of 83, the long life of Alfredo Visioli ended with a short ceremony at a graveyard near Cremona, his hometown in northern Italy.
In Ireland, the health authority is advising mortuary workers to put face masks on dead bodies to reduce even the minor risk of infection. Bergamo, home to about 120 000 people, has been dealing with 5-6 times the number of dead it would in normal times, he said. “When you feel you have no control over how you can grieve and over how you can experience those last moments with someone; that can complicate how you grieve and make you feel worse.”In Iran as in northern Italy, hospital and funeral workers are overwhelmed with bodies, as the virus has torn across the country, killing 1,284 people and infecting thousands, according to state TV.
Iranian authorities have rejected allegations of a cover-up, and President Hassan Rouhani, in a televised speech on 18 March, said his government had been “honest and straightforward with the nation.”In several countries, clusters of infection have followed funerals. In South Korea, where more than 90 people have died, the government has urged the families of COVID-19 victims to cremate their loved ones first, and hold the funeral later.
The local civil affairs bureau in late January ordered all funerals for confirmed COVID-19 victims to be handled at a single funeral home in the city’s Hankou district. Mourning ceremonies, usually boisterous social events in China, were curtailed along with all other public gatherings. In Ireland, up to 100 guests are still allowed at all funerals, for now. But most families are opting for small private ceremonies and encouraging others to express their condolences online through websites such as RIP.ie, where death notices and funeral invitations are usually posted.
Ritual washing and rites will be performed in full protective gear and the corpse re-wrapped in plastic for burial. Normally Israel’s Jewish dead are laid to rest in a cloth smock and shroud. An emergency bill to tackle the virus, which has killed 104 people in Britain, includes a number of measures the government says will “streamline the death management process.”
He said staff had worked without a break since the start of the epidemic. “Some of our employees don’t even drink water because they need to go to the toilet and it’s difficult to take off the protective clothing,” he wrote.
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