A LARGE funeral home in Cebu City urged hospitals to improve their storage facilities as a preventive measure against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and to help ensure non-transmission of the virus that causes Covid-19 among deceased patients.
The manager of the funeral home, who requested anonymity, expressed hope that hospitals will not release deceased Covid-19 patients until the funeral arrangements have been finalized to prevent virus transmission.
The manager said their records show July 2021 as the month with the highest number of individuals who died of Covid-19.
From January to March this year, cases of Covid-19 deaths they have accommodated in their facility went down by 30 percent, but the number of cases has steadily increased since May.
The manager said there were incidents when they have to decline the requests of the families of the deceased because their freezer that can accommodate four dead individuals at one time and their reservations for three days are both full.
There were also families from other towns and cities in Cebu Province who called their office, but they have to decline their requests because they have reached their full capacity.
A deceased individual may be stored in a freezer within one to two days.
The manager said their funeral home can cremate four to five deceased individuals in a day using their cremation machine.
The youngest they have cremated was a four-year-old child from Talisay City and the oldest was a 90-year-old. Both were coronavirus-positive. (MVE)