Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said families of coronavirus victims could not be allowed to claim their remains for burial.
In a forum on Friday in Abuja, the minister said such corpses are properties of the Federal Government.
According to Mohammed, the corpses of persons who died from COVID-19 in the country would be handled by the Ministry of Health.
The minister said the government would be risking the lives of such families if it allowed them to handle the bodies of victims because they are contagious.
“Coronavirus is very dangerous and contagious; there is no medicine for it yet and it is not just capable of killing, overwhelming healthcare system, it will destroy the economy,” said Mohammed.
Explaining further, he said :
"In some countries, they are putting dead bodies in big refrigerators, because the morgues have filled up. Nigerians should not forget that these are not the type of corpses that can be claimed for burial because it must be handled by the ministry of health."
Mohammed commended Nigerians for complying with the 14-day lockdown declared in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT by President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, as well as those declared by various state governments.
He urged Nigerians to “stay safe, obey simple instructions of basic hygiene and social distancing,” adding that “in a few weeks, we will resume our normal life”.
Since the first confirmed case on February 27, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has so far registered 190 cases of Coronavirus in the country; with a record of two deaths. However, twenty-three persons treated for the contagious disease , have also been known to have recovered from the global pandemic.
Post A Comment: