Tw: death, covid
My uncle died of covid this afternoon.
And man it is a fkn nightmare to deal with a body rn.

The Burari cemetery is not accepting covid bodies. The caretaker said mangolpuri cemetery is, but that the situation there is horrible, and there is a massive backlog.

So we decide to cremate and bury. No contact numbers for any of the crematoriums (if you can find them) are being answered. 102 ambulance number is only for people still alive. Private ambulances are operating, but charging exorbitant amounts (6000 for about 10km distance)

and they have a waiting list as well. These ambulances have no contact with the cremation grounds and you do not know if they will accept the body at the crematorium. When we called the ambulance they said they would come in PPE and with a body bag - came with neither.

My brother and I went ahead to punjabi ghat crematorium to talk and see if anything can be done today. At one point a person we called said nothing can happen, they already have a backlog of bodies, and we should just keep the body in an AC room for tonight.

We reached the crematorium and first went to the wood burning side. And my god there were so many pyres burning. I couldn't even count. Just pyre after pyre.
On the electric side, things are bad, with many bodies waiting to be burnt.

The guard initially turned us away, said nothing can be done today. He then asked if the patient was covid positive. We said yes. Then he asked where the body was coming coming, so we said Rohini. He said they wouldn't accept bodies from there.

Apparently we need to go to the appropriate crematorium according to the jurisdiction. But all crematoriums are full, no one has space.
Then said that we will have have show a positive report for the cremation. We had to beg the workers there to take our uncle's body.

The workers are overworked. They have not had a break for over a day. They are exhausted.
They said 10k for the cremation.
We could not get in touch with a priest before cremating him - even they are not available.

It is a fkn nightmare out there. There is no dignity in death even. Just bodies piling up all around.

It is horrible.