MAYOR Sara Duterte-Carpio said Davao City’s crematorium is overwhelmed with cadavers due to the rising Covid-19 fatalities in the city.
Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio September 20, 2021, that the city's crematorium being "fully-booked" is expected during a surge.
"Fully-booked ta pirmi sa atong cremation (Our crematorium is always fully-booked) as expected because of the surge. Pag naa'y surge, daghan magkasakit, and kung daghan magkasakit, daghan magsakit, daghang ma-high risk (When there is a surge, many will get sick, which would result in increasing number of people being high risk) and these high risk individuals become severe and critical cases who need hospital care," the mayor said.
"Usually pag (when they are) high risk and unvaccinated, they are more likely to succumb to Covid-19. Pag naa'y surge, daghan tay patay (When there is a surge, it would result in many deaths)," the mayor added.
The mayor recently bared that majority of the Covid-19 active cases and deaths are unvaccinated.
With this, she reminded the public to be vaccinated against Covid-19, regardless of the brand as it will spare them from being critically ill.
Duterte-Carpio said the city recorded a total of 73 deaths for morbidity week 37. Out of the total, 64 were unvaccinated while nine individuals were vaccinated. Out of the nine vaccinated, five of them got their first dose, while four of them are fully vaccinated.
Of the vaccinated deaths, four of them got jabbed with the Pfizer vaccine, two were vaccinated with Sinovac and Astrazeneca each, and one with Johnson & Johnson.
"For morbidity week 37, 87 percent sa mga nangamatay (of our deaths) are unvaccinated. Paunsa nato siya i-relate sa atong general public? Dako og tabang ang pagpabakuna aron dili ka mag-succumb sa Covid-19 (How can we relate this data to the general public? Vaccines help a person not to succumb to Covid-19)," Duterte-Carpio said.
With regards to the nine vaccinated deaths, she said, "one brand is not better than the other basta deaths na ang istoryahan and base na sa atong data (when it comes to death and this is based on our data)."
The city opened its own P14.8-million crematorium facility at Wireless Cemetery on February 4 this year. It also seeks to address the backlog in cremation services due to the rising cases for free.
She said the crematorium can process four cadavers daily.
The mayor also said the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), last week, set up a new morgue that can cater to 108 cadavers. This is an addition to its existing morgue.
She said the additional morgue, which is a 40-foot refrigerated container van, comes from a donor.
Meanwhile, she said the city's crematorium was able to process 2,101 cadavers, while 22 others are scheduled for cremation.
Duterte-Carpio also said the city's mass burial site at the Tagakpan Public Cemetery in Tugbok District is ready in case the city’s crematorium will be overwhelmed with the number of fatalities.
In a radio interview, she reiterated that in March last year, during the early days of the pandemic, they already prepared the site for those who have succumbed to the virus.
Around 160 lots are available at the cemetery and each lot can accommodate up to six corpses or 960 corpses in total.