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East Jakarta cemetery records highest weekly number of COVID-19 burials since March
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Grave situation: Diggers at the Pondok Ranggon cemetery in East Jakarta dig more graves for COVID-19 victims on Wednesday. The rate of COVID-19 funerals at Pondok Ranggon is still high with 700 to 720 funerals per month, and available plots are expected to run out in October. (JP/P.J. Leo)
T
he Pondok Ranggon cemetery in East Jakarta has recorded the highest number of funerals in a week since its establishment as a COVID-19 burial location in March.
Nadi, the cemetery's management officer, said 213 bodies had been buried under COVID-19 protocol at Pondok Ranggon last week.
"Last week, we buried 213 bodies. Previously, we buried an average of 180 bodies per week," Nadi said on Sunday.
However, Nadi said he didn't know how many of the deceased had been confirmed to be COVID-19 positive.
Nadi explained that his team had buried 29 bodies on Monday last week, 32 on Tuesday, 30 on Wednesday, 40 on Thursday, 27 on Friday, 27 on Saturday and 28 on Sunday.
Thursday also saw the highest number of bodies buried under COVID-19 protocol in a day at the cemetery since the pandemic was first confirmed in the country in March.
The spike came less than two weeks after the cemetery had announced its previous highest daily burial on Aug. 31 with 36 bodies.
Nadi said the Pondok Ranggon cemetery expected to run out of space for COVID-19 graves in October because of the recent increase in the number of burials.
"There is only space left for another 1,100 burials in the cemetery’s southern area of 7,000 square meters. The capacity is likely to be critical in mid-October,” Nadi said as quoted by kompas.com.
It is estimated that, in October, the remaining land may only accommodate 380 to 400 bodies.
As of Monday, Jakarta has recorded 54,864 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 12,440 active cases and 1,410 fatalities. (nal)
