The novel coronavirus has made honoring the dead a hurried affair, largely devoid of the rituals that give it meaning for mourners.
The death toll in Belagavi since the commencement of the pandemic is at an all-time high.
The number of deaths in the city has risen sharply in the last three months in the wake of the Corona outbreak, BelgaumLIVE visited the city’s cemeteries and found that more funerals are being held at each place than usual.
At the Vadgaon Cemetery, 21 people were cremated in the cemetery between August 1 and August 13. It is generally observed that one person is cremated in this cemetery every 2-3 days. But now the number has risen to the point that in just 13 days, last rites on 21 people have been done.
The Shahapur Muktidham, the second largest cemetery in the city, has also seen a large number of cremations. 61 people were cremated here in June, 126 in July and 81 from August 1 to 13. This includes 2 COVID-19 cases. An employee at the cemetery said this was the first time in the last 25 years that such a large number of funerals were being held at Shahapur Cemetery.
Meanwhile, the situation at Sadashivnagar Cemetery, the city’s main cemetery, is no different. A total of 197 people were cremated at the cemetery this year while last June, only 66 cremations were undertaken.
In the month of August from the 1st to Aug 13 as many as 231 cremations have taken place. This figure also has some corona positives locally and from the district so the figure also looks on the higher side.
On one day as many as 28 cremations were done here.
Cremations have been done by the Anjuman e Islam as well show figures which are also very high.
ICMR guidelines state that deaths in cases where test results are awaited but Covid-19 symptoms are present will be recorded as ‘suspected deaths’, while those testing negative but having symptoms will be mentioned as ‘clinically-epidemiologically diagnosed Covid-19’.
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