Problems cropped up to cremate the bodies of COVID-19 patients in Bengal

Kolkata,02 April(HS): As the local residents of Ariadaha in north Kolkata prevented the health officials from cremating the body of a CODIV-19 patient in the local crematorium last night in suspicion that the killer virus might affect them also,  a peculiar situation has created in West Bengal with the state government now claiming that only 3 people in the state have so far lost their lives in COVID -19, and not 6 as reported earlier yesterday.

After the death of three patients of COVID-19 in and around the city yesterday when the state health department employees and officials wanted to cremate the bodies at the local crematorium at Ariadaha on the northern outskirts of the city last night as per the WHO guidelines, a large number of local people gathered on the spot and prevented the health officials from doing the last rights there fearing that the virus from the deceased could spread into the locality and might affect many people.

A number of roadblocks were set up to stop the health officials and a large number of people even sat on the approach road to prevent the health officials from reaching the crematorium till midnight last night forcing them to retreat.

As the latest reports suggest the health officials then took the bodies to the Dhapa dumping ground area, far away from the city, and cremated the bodies amid the rubble so that there was no scope of spreading of the virus and in accordance with the strict guidelines of the World Health Organisation and the  Union Health ministry.

But the incident has once again exposed the inhuman nature of a section of people in this City of Joy like in some other parts of the country, where they were being guided by some misinformation and misconception about the nature of this deadly pandemic and resorted to some inhuman acts, particularly for the relatives of the deceased in this present critical time.

Meanwhile, for reasons best known to her, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has denied the reports in all sections of media since yesterday that altogether 6 people including two women have so far died of Coronavirus in the state, and instead claimed that only 3 three people had died of the killer disease while emphasising that three of the 37 people, affected so far, have been fully recovered and returned to their homes.