Pune: PMC to set aside two crematoriums for COVID-related deaths; installs mortuary to prevent delays

Pune: PMC to set aside two crematoriums for COVID-related deaths; installs mortuary to prevent delays

In Sangamwadi and Yerawada, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has reserved only two crematoriums for the last rites of patients dying due to COVID-19 infection and allows the cremation of non-COVID bodies at other crematoriums. This, however, has contributed to an increase in wait time for ambulance carriers.

The PMC has now set aside a mortuary in Kailash Crematorium near Sangamwadi in an effort to prevent such a delay.

In Sangamwadi and Yerawada, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has reserved only two crematoriums for the last rites of patients dying due to COVID-19 infection and allows the cremation of non-COVID bodies at other crematoriums. This, however, has contributed to an increase in wait time for ambulance carriers. 

Earlier, six of the 21 crematoriums for the COVID-19 bodies were reserved by the municipal body for cremation. The PMC faced a crunch of personnel and decided to only maintain two crematoriums.

Till Friday, 685 people had died due to the infectious virus and the total number of cases is nearing the 20K mark.

 “As the COVID-19 deaths are increasing in the city, sometimes there is a queue outside the Kailash and Yerawada crematorium for performing final rites on dead bodies. As the ambulances are stuck at the crematorium, hospitals keep calling the driver to transport the next body. To avoid all this trouble, PMC has now fixed a mortuary at Kailash crematorium. Four dead bodies can be placed in this mortuary at a given time,” the PMC electric department chief Shrinivas Kandul, who is also co-ordinating the cremations, was quoted saying to Hindustan Times. 

The PMC also plans to operate the Yerawada mortuary for the next few days, according to Kandul.

He added, “PMC allotted six ambulances only for transporting COVID-19 bodies to the crematorium.”

The PMC reports that an extra mortuary is intended to keep ambulances from having to unload the body. It can drop the body at the mortuary and run to the next call immediately.

The officials of the PMC said the decision to cut the reserved crematoria from six to two was that municipal officials had to use final rites with gas cremators and that the management of gas crematoria by a privately owned contractor was problematic. There was also a shortage of workers. PMC workers are not ready to conduct the final rites owing to confusion and terror, another municipal official said.

PMC has only retained two crematoriums for finishing rites to streamline this function effectively. Several shifts occur and four workers remain in service at each shift. The crematoria of Kailash and Yerawada are in proximity to several hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

Kandul instructed ambulances to not go to the depot but to return to the hospital from where they got a call.

“They should stop near Kailash crematorium as it would help to decrease their travel time,” he said.

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