No COVID-19 burial at Kissy Road Cemetery

Sports

On Friday 24th April 2020, a burial team from the Connaught Mortuary in Freetown, conducted a burial at the Kissy Road Cemetery that caused anger and fear in the hearts of the relatives of the deceased and grave diggers. The team was dressed in bio-hazard suits, which alarmed the community to think that a COVID 19 burial was being undertaken. The Environment Officer at the Freetown City Council (FCC), Sulaiman Zainu Parker, said the burial that was conducted at the Kissy Road Cemetery on Friday, was not a COVID-19 death. He said the two COVID-19 deaths were buried in Kingtom and Ascension cemeteries. “The situation has been a bit chaotic in recent times in the major cemeteries in the city: Ascension Town, Kingtom and now Kissy Road. “We have started receiving the dead, and up till now we have not received a specific burial policy from government in terms of the COVID-19,” Parker revealed. Parker said he is in charge of all Council cemeteries and now he is having serious challenges from grave diggers, who are scared to bury the dead. “The grave diggers have requested PPEs and other materials and next week I will meet with them to address their concerns,” he explained.Several relatives and friends of the deceased who was buried at Kissy Road were angry at the burial team for the way and manner they handled the corpse. “They were dragging him on the ground with little respect for the dead,” said Fatmata in tears. “He was not a coronavirus patient. So, I wonder why they buried him in a body bag. This bag makes it difficult for the body to decompose. That is why I am crying like this,” complained a male relative The Kissy Road Cemetery administrator, Ibrahim Sesay said they have received five burials this week. He said the man that died was a businessman in his community. “The crowd would have been bigger than this, but due to the COVID-19 restrictions we limited the number of people into the cemetery,” he stated. During Ebola period, all burial was centered at Kingtom and waterloo. But this time relatives have the right to request for their loved one to be buried in the cemetery or grave of their choice. We do not have any scientific evidence to show that the disease is transmitted from corpse to human. That is why we allow relatives to bury their loved ones. “The earlier we get a burial policy the better,” Parker concluded.

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