The body of a 68-year-old woman from west Delhi, who had succumbed to COVID-19, was cremated at Nigambhod Ghat in the city on Saturday afternoon after an initial denial by the crematorium, according to family members.
"We reached the crematorium by 10.30 am, but the authorities refused to cremate the body. They told us they did not have any guidelines from the Health Department about coronavirus victims. We refused to go back and had to wait for about two and a half hours before cremating the body," Sanjeev Arora, 44, the deceased's relative told The Hindu.
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"There was some confusion and later the body was later cremated at the CNG crematorium," said Ashok Rawat, a health officer at North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
The family said that the government should have made better arrangements. "The government knew last night about the death and we came to the crematorium in RML Hospital's ambulance and we had to wait for hours. We were worried. One of our family members was dead," Mr. Arora said.
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Suman Gupta, the coordinator of an NGO which runs the crematorium said that the delay was because they had to seek permission from the NDMC. "This was a special case and we had to seek permission from the MCD. As soon as we got the permission we made arrangements for the cremation," he said.
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Mr. Rawat said that there was confusion as it is a new disease. "We cleared the confusion and later took safety precautions. Two people from the crematorium who helped the hospital staff in the cremation were also provided headgears, goggles, gloves, and shoes," he said.
