A new directive from the health department that anyone who dies of natural causes outside a hospital be tested for Covid-19 before a death certificate is issued has thrown the funeral industry into confusion.
The instruction, issued on Wednesday by health director-general Sandile Buthelezi, has sparked anger and confusion among undertakers and health professionals who say it will delay burials and pose health risks.The new regulation is aimed at improving statistics on the number of Covid-19-positive people dying outside of hospitals. This data could affect SA's Covid-19 death toll, which is currently 2%. Health experts believe the number could be four times higher.
But, after an urgent but inconclusive virtual meeting with undertakers and doctors on Thursday, the department yesterday told theHowever, confusion continued with undertakers and doctors voicing concerns over:Whether undertakers, funeral policies, families of the deceased or medical aids would pay doctors to take the swabs;Who would supply the test kits; andPieter van der Westhuizen, the general manager of leading undertaker firm Avbob, said when it came to natural deaths, bodies were taken to...
"The health officials at Friday's meeting, who were from various sections of the department, promised clarity soon. We are not sure when that clarity will arrive, though." "This instruction creates a lot of turmoil, especially for families who are already traumatised and in mourning. The requirement now of testing is going to create even more trauma for families."Natural deaths occurred in SA between May 6 and August 4, according to the SA Medical Research CouncilLibo Mnisi, president of the South African Funeral Practitioners Association, said the instruction would delay burials and pose severe health risks.
Health department spokesperson Popo Maja said yesterday that the doctors who would take the samples would be from the public and private sectors, and would be asked by undertakers, in whose areas they practised, to come to the undertakers' premises or mortuaries and certify death and take swabs for testing.
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