Lagos State Government has announced its intention to organise a mass burial if State Mortuaries are not decongested in two weeks.
While making this announcement at a Saturday State briefing on COVID-19, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed that mortuary congestion was not as a result of COVID-19 recorded deaths in the state, which is less than 20.
“If we’re unable to see a decongestion of mortuaries across the state within the next two weeks, Lagos state government will now be compelled to seek to have a mass burial and we would not want to force this on anybody, which is why we are asking for the cooperation of all of us,”. This is not the time when you need to wait for your brother or your sister or your sibling, who is 10,000km or 6,000km away from here for them to come back before you can have the funeral.
“These are very difficult times and I can imagine that families and relatives and siblings will understand that we need to have this and we need to put this behind us. So, we are reiterating it again that we’ll give two weeks window and we’ll expect a lot of people to comply after which the state government might have to take other decisions in that manner.”
The Governor reminded that burials must be done following the social distancing directives. Which is also a reason no burial has been organised since the outbreak.
“The total number of persons at the funeral, including officiating religious leaders, must not exceed 20,” he said. Appropriate physical distancing must be maintained at the funeral ceremony, all attendees/mourners must use masks and ensure they wash their hands after the ceremony. There also must be no receptions or parties to accompany these funerals.”
