COVID 19 Pandemic or the Novel Corona Virus 2019 has terrorised the living communities. Part III

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation 

In the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami the WHO Technical Report Tsunami in South Asia 2004 A Comprehensive Analysis. says “Bodies were unceremoniously collected in black bags and buried in mass graves. Claims that bodies needed to be quickly recovered and disposed of in order to prevent the spread of disease were false, but the removal of dead bodies from impacted communities was an important step in restoring a sense of normalcy. Additionally, religious customs among some of Aceh’s Muslim communities instructs followers to bury bodies within 24 hours of death. At the same time, the need to identify missing loved ones and the desire to observe proper burial rituals were strong among the impacted population”. 

A Plos Medicine article enumerates the need for best practices of managing mass mortalities in disaster afflicted areas: 

Preventing mass mortalities on such a scale calls for an almost Utopian level of efficiency in Administration but well worth the effort as it saves thousands of lives: 

• Advanced state of the art scientific research and applications including geo spatial mapping of land use and planning. 

This helps in earmarking cemeteries for Pandemics, pet cemeteries, fodder banks, pastures hospitals and so on to plan natural calamities etc. All this will help plan the human footprint and protect green cover in an inviolate state: atleast that is the intention. It reflects well for Human Development Index. India has achieved geo spatial mapping and has mapped areas vulnerable to Tsunami hazard. 

• Early warning and forecasting. This is not easy to implement in a Pandemic scenario but Civic Administration can learn lessons from other regions all the same. 

• Information dissemination through mass media, internet, social media, sms technology, Public Announcements on radio and Television will aid better management of the Pandemic. 

• Trenchant scrutiny of public administration by the Media is a must. But in India, the media tries to politicise discussions on Pandemic management! Reflects the need for better training, at the very least. 

• Weekly mock drills for the local administration. 

• Mock drills for identified populations … (planned in such a way that all the identified vulnerable population of a given location) participates in a mock drill atleast once a month. This helps authorities plan for resources, training, volunteer services, contact tracing (in the current pandemic), evacuation and isolation if necessary and so on. 

• State of the Art medical preparedness. 

• Robust and well trained, disaster-ready and duty conscious Civic Administration. 

• Infrastructure for disposal of the dead. Biodegradable body bags in case of burial are the current need. 

• Infrastructure for treatment of injured, ailing and suffering populace. 

• Reduce the number of people living in calamity prone areas (calls for long term disaster risk reduction strategies). WHO guidelines on disposal of mortalities include: 

PAHO & WHO Checklist for disposing mass mortalities: 

During disasters there is a need for: 

• Refrigeration of dead bodies, 

• Need for mortuaries with effective refrigeration and uninterrupted power supply. 

• Need for disinfectants, sprays, disposable gloves, masks, air fresheners and medical equipment. 

• Need for search and rescue gear, recovery equipment. 

• Need for earth excavation machines, dumpers, trawlers, JCBs etc in the ownership of municipal and civic bodies. 

• Tagging corpses is necessary. 

• Need for biodegradable Body bags @ 10% of hospital bed occupancy. 

• If body bags or related resources like disinfectants for disposal of the dead are part of relief material from donor countries, then care must be taken to exempt import and excise duty stamps during calamities. This is necessary for speedy disbursal of relief material. 

• Industrial dry ice for preservation of the corpses, 

• Creation of database of DNA of the dead 

• Documenting other characteristics of the dead – height, approximate weight age, and gender; and fingerprinting the dead is absolutely necessary besides identification of location of recovery of the dead – wherever possible with photographic databases. 

• Photographic database of corpses maybe macabre but if posted online in the day and age of internet (intranet), it helps in networking the deceased’s families with the location of the retrieval of dead…. Some kind of a mortality register / registry / intranet especially if family members are not allowed to conduct funeral, photo documentation is certainly helpful. Care must be taken not to leak it to social media or public domain / Mainstream Media. 

• Medical staff must also document dental records before disposal of dead. 

• Such parametres can be coded by hospital / medical staff for more effective database management in disaster affected zones. 

The ideal mortuary: 

“These autopsies have to done in a mortuary with adequate bio safety measures such as Airborne Infection Isolation Rooms (AIIRs). These rooms are at negative pressure to surrounding areas, have a minimum of 6 to 12 air changes per hour (ACH) for renovated or new structures, have air exhausted directly outside or through a high efficiency particulate aerosol (HEPA) filter and PPE, N95 Masks, Goggles, Face shield etc” says Dr. P.S. Varghese, adding, “If I am right, very few mortuaries may be having this kind of comprehensive facilities in India”. 

Concluded 

Picture Credits: 

Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, UN Photo Library, Pixabay, NDRF (Govt. of India), Digital Globe. 

 Links for further reference: 

1. Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations: https://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/management_of_dead_bodies.pdf 

2. Coronavirus on Aluminum Surfaces: https://www.aluminum.org/sites/default/files/Coronavirus%20on%20Aluminum%20Surfaces%20050420.pdf 

3. MoHFW Guidelines on Dead Body Management: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/1584423700568_COVID19GuidelinesonDeadbodymanagement.pdf 

Other articles in this series maybe viewed on: 

COVID-19 opportunity for course correction from Self Destruction – I 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-19-opportunity-for-course.html  

Work From Home maybe one of the few positive outcomes of the NCOVID 19 Pandemic II Part 1 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/work-from-home-maybe-one-of-few.html 

Work From Home maybe one of the few positive outcomes of the NCOVID 19 Pandemic II Part 2 https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/work-from-home-maybe-one-of-few_3.html 

Rewilding has Ecological lessons from COVID 19 Pandemic https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/rewilding-has-ecological-lessons-from.html COVID 19 is indeed an opportunity to stem the rot - Impact of Lockdown on education Part 1 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-19-is-indeed-opportunity-to-stem.html 

The Domino Effect of the Pandemic on the economy Part 1 https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-domino-effect-of-pandemic-on.html 

The Domino Effect of the Pandemic on the economy Part II https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-domino-effect-of-pandemic-on_6.html 

COVID 19 Lockdown can be effective only with Inter Agency Coordination 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid-19-lockdown-can-be-effective-only.html 

COVID 19 Pandemic or the Novel Corona Virus 2019 has terrorised the living communities. Part I 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid-19-pandemic-or-novel-corona-virus.html 

COVID 19 Pandemic or the Novel Corona Virus 2019 has terrorised the living communities. Part II 

https://capturingcurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid-19-pandemic-or-novel-corona-virus_16.html