Malaysia Records Record Of COVID-19 Infection For Three Consecutive Days, Burial Volunteers Are Overwhelmed

Illustration of the funeral of a COVID-19 patient. (Wikimedia Commons/Behzad Alipour)

JAKARTA - COVID-19 volunteers in Malaysia are worried, along with the spike in COVID-19 cases in a neighboring country that makes them have to work extra and increase the risk of being exposed to the coronavirus.

Launching Channel News Asia, Friday, May 28 (CNA) Malaysia recorded an increase in cases of COVID-19 infection by 7,857 cases on Thursday, May 27 yesterday. This is the third day in a row with a record increase in infection cases.

Selangor and Kuala Lummpur were the states contributing to this increase, with 2,675 and 561 cases, respectively. Total Malaysia has now recorded 541,224 cases of COVID-19 infection with 2,491 deaths.

This raises concerns for volunteers helping to bury the victims of COVID-19. Dressed in full protective gear, volunteers who are members of the Malaysian Funeral Management Force are usually called by the hospital, to help families pay their final respects in a safe manner.

Muhammad Rafieudin Zainal Rasid, a religious leader who heads the national volunteer team, known as the 'ulama committee' said volunteers are currently handling nearly 30 times as many bodies as they did last year.

The volunteer team has grown to more than 2,000 members, but Muhammad Rafieudin says they are struggling to keep up.

"Previously, it was about one to three cases per month, but now we are handling up to two to three cases a day," he said, referring to only one team in the Kuala Lumpur district where he is based, as reported by Reuters.

Volunteers go from the hospital to the morgue to prepare the body for burial. Previously, they had funnels at the funeral, which was sometimes attended by family members, also with full protective equipment.

But as the number of deaths from the virus increases in the Muslim-majority country, it is sometimes difficult to bury the entire body within 24 hours as is customary in Islam.

"If there were more than 10 cases today at the same funeral, it might take two to three (days) to solve all of them. We are afraid the risk will be even more dangerous for all of us who are exposed to (COVID-19), because we are handling the bodies," he concluded.