KAVREPALANCHOK: The district has faced challenges in the management of the bodies of the people who died from COVID-19 with the death toll from the infection increases.
So far, the bodies were cremated at the electric crematorium at Pashupati Aryaghat in Kathmandu. But lately, there is a pressure of bodies at the crematorium.
As a result, the COVID-19 crisis management center in the district has requested the concerned authority to manage the bodies of those who died from the virus at a local level.
Space has been sought at 13 local levels in the district for the management of the bodies, it has been said.
“A death from the virus has taken place on almost a daily basis lately. So space has been sought for the management of the bodies at a local level. People’s representatives at the local level have taken this issue seriously,” said the Centre coordinator and Chief District Officer Shiva Ram Pokharel.
At present, two local levels have proposed for the management of the bodies at their respective area, he said. The district recorded 15 deaths from the virus as of Wednesday and 1371 infection cases as of Thursday. Of them, 887 have been free of the infection.
Of actively infected people, 377 have been receiving treatment at home isolation and 93 at hospital isolation, it has been said.
Meanwhile, students at Kathmandu University School of Engineering in Dhulikhel have come together to develop a van named ‘robo-van’ to help manage bodies of those who died from the virus without humans touching the body in the process.
The remote-controlled van helps take the body from the hospital bed to a hearse and to the crematorium without a human touching it in the process, said the van’s designer Avishek Karki.
The project is expected to be completed within mid-November. Nepal Academy of Science and Technology has funded the project.
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