Authorities testing body of deceased in Thinadhoo for coronavirus

Health Protection Agency (HPA) has taken samples from the body of a G. Dh. Madaveli resident who died at the Abdul Samad Memorial Hospital in G. Dh. Thinadhoo on Tuesday for coronavirus screening.

At a National Emergency Operations Center press briefing on Tuesday night, spokesperson Mabrouq Azeez said the deceased had been hospitalized in Thinadhoo as a Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) patient.

He confirmed that health authorities had taken samples from the body to test for COVID-19, but that the samples had yet to reach Male’ for lab processing.

Mabrouq also said the funeral rites were held with proper precautionary measures.

A new SOP for hospitals and health centers dictates that if a patient dies under such circumstances and his or her body is to be tested for COVID-19, and if the funeral is to be held before the test results become available, the funeral rites must be conducted in the same manner as that for confirmed virus cases – with precautions in place.

Mabrouq said that funeral workers had been provided the directive by hospital officials that it was safe to proceed with the normal method for purification of the body, and had provided them with PPEs to wear.

However, the funeral works chose another method to purify the body - tayammum.

Health experts and Islamic scholars have drawn up a guideline on funeral rites for those who die from COVID-19. It instructs that the body of the deceased be purified not with water, but using the method of tayammum – using purified sand or dust.

Fueled by the community spread in Male’, virus cases in Maldives have now risen to 250. Three virus patients who have been identified as high risk patients, either due to their old age or preexisting medical conditions, have been moved to Dharumavantha Hospital.