Three Variants Of COVID-19 Increasing In Myanmar, Corpses Queue To Be Cremated Because They Can't Be Buried

Illustration of COVID-19 patient burial. (Wikimedia Commons/Behzad Alipour/Fars News Agency)

JAKARTA - Myanmar is facing a tense situation, after a spike in COVID-19 infection cases caused hospitals to be overwhelmed and residents unable to access medical oxygen. Now, cemeteries and cremation houses are also overwhelmed by the influx of bodies of COVID-19 patients.

Cemeteries in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon are littered with bodies as the country is gripped by a new wave of coronavirus, amid the post-coup political upheaval that has crippled the country's public health system.

Lack of access to oxygen is said to be the cause of the majority of deaths in this wave, as patients do not receive timely oxygen support after the virus disrupts oxygen flow in the body, the charity said.

Yangon's four major cemeteries have witnessed one of the busiest weeks in their history, cremating more than 700 bodies on Thursday last week, and hundreds of bodies in the previous days. Since then, around 1,000 people have reportedly died in Yangon, while the cemetery can no longer handle the number of bodies that come in every day.

“We can't even count the patients who died from COVID-19 due to lack of oxygen. We are so busy that we have to keep on wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) all day long," said a charity worker from Hlaing Tharyar," as quoted by The Irrawaddy Sunday, July 18.

As charity groups providing free funeral services were overwhelmed, those providing ambulance services had to help transport the dead to the cemetery in Yangon. Meanwhile, getting an ambulance service is also quite difficult, according to charity workers.

"At Yayway Cemetery, I saw many bodies laid on the floor (waiting for cremation). The situation is the same at Kyesu Cemetery. People even have to queue to get cremation permits," said a charity worker from East Dagon.

After the large graves were abandoned, the military regime issued a request asking people to send the bodies to the nearest graveyard from their homes.

Funeral officials confirmed the higher-than-usual number, but declined to reveal the exact number of cremations and burials held each day.

"Bodies have to be sent to different graves, depending on where the victims live. The number of bodies has increased slightly compared to the past," explained a Yayway funeral official.

Yangon has been hardest hit by the third wave of the pandemic, with more than 10,000 cases reported in the city, according to figures released by the regime. The actual figure could be much higher.

This is because many people take care of themselves at home because they cannot get a bed in one of the city hospitals, due to lack of staff and incomplete or regime-run COVID-19 centers, in addition to the public's distrust of the Myanmar military regime's health system.

Myanmar's military regime says the daily death toll is between 100 and 200 nationwide since July 13, but charity workers report seeing hundreds of bodies in Yayway Cemetery alone. A charity group in Yangon said it handled about 60 bodies per day last week.

Nearly 90 percent of the country has been affected by the third wave of coronavirus infections in Myanmar, with 296 of the 330 municipalities nationwide reporting cases of COVID-19 since May, and three deadly variants, namely Delta, Alpha, and Kappa variants detected in the country.

For information, data from the junta-controlled Ministry of Health and Sports said more than 78,000 cases were reported with 1,405 deaths between February 1 and July 16, with most of the deaths recorded since mid-June.

Myanmar Coup. The VOI editorial team continues to monitor the political situation in one of the ASEAN member countries. Casualties from civilians continue to fall. Readers can follow the news covering the Myanmar military coup by clicking this link.