Protests against burial of a woman infected with Coronavirus in Dhangadhi

Dhangadhi:Tensions have risen in Dhangadhi after the body of a woman who died of Coronavirus was buried in a graveyard situated in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan Ward no.1. 

The locals locked the cemetery and protested by burning tires against the burial of the corpse in a graveyard situated near human settlement.

A 57-year-old woman of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City Ward No. 2 died at the Seti Provincial Hospital on Thursday morning. Hospital’s information officer Dilip Kumar Shrestha said that she was admitted to the hospital on September 26 after she was diagnosed with severe pneumonia. She tested positive for Coronavirus yesterday and took her last breath in the hospital at 5:30 this morning.

Meanwhile, Mayor Nirpa Bahadur Odd of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan city said that the administration and the Nepal Army did not coordinate while managing the corpse. However, it is inappropriate to remove the buried corpse, he said. Mayor Odd also ensured his involvement in the management of corpses in the near future by specifying a certain place for the burial of bodies infected with Coronavirus. 

Chief District Officer of Kailali, Yagya Raj Bohara, said that the deceased was buried in the cemetery of ward no. 1 due to lack of space. "We tried to make arrangements in various places for her burial like community forests. However, people everywhere refrained from letting us use those areas. Eventually people from the Muslim community opted to bury the body in their cemetery and we agreed to it.”