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Hospitals, cemeteries overwhelmed as Jakarta faces new spike in COVID-19 cases
The double-burial policy has provided a glimpse into the state of the outbreak in Jakarta, where there have been renewed calls to reimpose large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) amid soaring cases, deaths and hospital occupancy rates.
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Strict protocols: Gravediggers carry the casket of a deceased COVID-19 patient on the first day of 2021 in Pondok Ranggon public cemetery in East Jakarta. (JP/P.J. Leo).
Usage: 0 (JP/P.J. Leo)
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n the first day of 2021, Adang, a 40-year-old gravedigger at the Pondok Ranggon public cemetery in East Jakarta pointed to four freshly dug graves with grave markers containing two names each. One of the two names on each stone, he told The Jakarta Post, was a coronavirus victim who died recently but had to share burial space with a relative who had died a few years before.
Having worked for the public cemetery for about 12 years, only in the last two months has Adang had to bury two bodies in the same grave, not because of the family's request but rather because there was simply no space left.
Since March, Adang has been digging graves for COVID-19 fatalities in Pondok Ranggon cemetery, as Jakarta’s outbreak has worsened with each passing day. In the last week of 2020, Adang said he had buried at least 12 bodies in old graves; those sharing the same graves must be blood-related, with the families' permission and the graves must be around three years old. "Before COVID-19, there were families who shared the same graves, like husbands and wives. But that time it was because they wanted to," Adang said on Friday.
The double-burial policy has provided a glimpse into the state of the outbreak in the capital, where there have been renewed calls to reimpose large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) amid soaring cases, deaths and hospital occupancy rates.
As a gravedigger, Adang has seen the worse of the pandemic—on some days since the middle of 2020 he has had to stay until late at night, burying up to 40 bodies. What he thought would only last for several days has gone on with seemingly no end in sight. Now the cemetery, which has seen the burial of over 4,600 COVID-19 fatalities, has no more spare land.
As a result, bodies have, since mid-November, been transferred to the Tegal Alur COVID-19 public cemetery in West Jakarta, which has seen over 4,100 COVID burials to date, said the cemetery's head Wawin Wahyudi on Saturday.
