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GRAAFF-REINET NEWS & VIDEO - To lose a loved one to Covid-19 is traumatic. Putting the loved one to rest under the Disaster Management Act applicable to Covid-19 is something no family member would want to experience.
Except for the fact that the family is forced by law to bury the body within three days, the funeral itself is not a funeral loved ones are used to.
The Advertiser attended such a funeral on 11 July to see how it is done. Funeral director AB le Roux of Le Roux Funeral Services did his best to let the funeral be as normal as possible, but the gazetted legislation does not make it easy for funeral directors to suppress the trauma and grief of family members. Deceased loved ones are buried in a coffin, wrapped in thick plastic, and the grave is surrounded by tape, 1,5m right around. This after the family may not have seen the corpse for a final goodbye.
Le Roux said that, at the funeral parlour, all personnel, the coffin and everything possible must be sanitised. They must then wrap the body in three body bags, but before that, the body must also be sanitised.
Before the body is loaded, the hearse must be sanitised again.
At the graveyard, the allowed 50 mourners must wait outside the boundaries of the graveyard, while two funeral service personnel, dressed in full protective gear, take their place next to the coffin. Only five chosen mourners may then be seated 1,5m away from the taped-off area.
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