In A Day, Bekasi Regency Bury 20 To 30 Bodies Of COVID-19

JAKARTA - The Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 in Bekasi Regency, West Java stated that in one day officers could bury dozens of COVID-19 positive bodies during the spike in cases of the corona virus in the area.

"The current condition is that in one day there can be 10 to 30 bodies exposed to COVID-19 that are buried," said Bekasi Regency COVID-19 Task Force Spokesperson Alamsyah in Cikarang, as reported by Antara, Wednesday, July 14.

He said the dozens of bodies buried were residents of Bekasi Regency who were declared suspects or had been confirmed positive for COVID-19 based on the results of swab and laboratory tests.

This condition, he said, forced the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to be carried out with even more extra work, especially in terms of funeral preparations.

The preparations included alerting a number of heavy equipment at two TPU specifically for COVID-19, namely TPU Mangunjaya Tambun Selatan and TPU Pasirtanjung, Central Cikarang District.

"To help dig graves, we have prepared beko (heavy equipment) to speed up the process of excavating the soil so that funeral queues don't happen again," he said.

The regional government has also prepared the addition of a special TPU for COVID-19 which is planned to be located in Wanajaya Village, Cibitung District with an area of 30 hectares.

Alamsyah admitted that the policy for adding a special TPU for COVID-19 was carried out after the two previous TPUs were declared almost full and land expansion could not be carried out again.

Secretary of the Bekasi Regency Public Housing, Settlement and Land Service, Nur Chaidir, said that the 26 hectares of Mangunjaya TPU and 30 hectares of Pasirtanjung TPU are now almost full.

"Because these two locations are not only intended for COVID-19 funerals but also for public funerals before," he said.

He admitted that with the addition of a special TPU for COVID-19 in Wanajaya, Cibitung Sub-district, it is hoped that he will be able to anticipate a surge in death cases caused by COVID-19 in his area.

"So we have anticipated by proposing one more TPU in Cibitung. Seeing the current trend, the number of people who died continues to rise," said Nur Chaidir.