The Malaysian Insight

THESE past few weeks have been a busy period for Shahrum Baharudin who works as a gravedigger at the Muslim burial ground in Kota Damansara in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

The cemetery has been seeing a steady inflow of burials – almost every single one has been a victim of Covid-19. It has seen 87 Covid-19 burials so far.

The number of burials has been drastic with the pandemic continuing to rage, and increasing the national death toll.

“During the first wave of Covid-19 last year, we had about four Covid-19 victims a month. Now it is almost four burials a week,” said the 47-year-old Shahrum, who has been working as a gravedigger for more than 20 years.

The worst, he said, was four Covid-19 burials in a day recently.

The Malaysian Insight recently got hold of Shahrum to speak about how Covid-19 has changed his life as a gravedigger.

“In the beginning, I felt extremely sad and scared to handle a Covid-19 victim.

“I was so scared to a point when I got back home, I would shower using Clorox bleach,” he said when met at the cemetery.

However, he said, he has gotten used to the standard operating procedure involved, and has accepted the number of deaths he has to deal with on a daily basis.

“It is bad. We did four burials in a day here recently,” he said.

He said the process starts with a call from the hospitals, after which he or other gravediggers will start to work on the burial plot.

Shahrum said for every Covid-19 burial, personnel from the Health Ministry (MoH) would be present to guide them on the relevant protocols and on wearing the personal protective equipment (PPE) properly.

“During the burial process, three employees from MoH will be present at the cemetery to assist us and the family members, including in helping them to put on the PPE,” he said.

He said wearing the PPE can be very draining, especially for him since he works under the hot sun.

He said they would have to sanitise the mortuary van, the body as well as the grave before and after every burial.

“Once the body has been lowered into the ground and covered with soil, the ground will be sanitised again.

“Gravediggers too will be sanitised from top to bottom to make sure we are not infected, or carry any viruses with us,” he said.

Cemetery supervisor Afindi Mohammad, 38, said they always feared infecting their loved ones with Covid-19 due to the nature of their work.

“We are scared for our family back home as we come in contact with Covid-19 dead bodies on a daily basis,” he said.

He said so far, 87 Covid-19 victims have been buried at the cemetery.

Afindi, who has been a supervisor at this cemetery for five years, also explained the extra time taken to bury a Covid-19 victim.

“A normal burial takes about 30 minutes whereas a Covid-19 burial process takes about 90 minutes.

“The process is longer for a Covid-19 burial simply because it takes time for my staff to wear the PPE and also to sanitise the place and the body.”

He said they would get a call from the hospital about two hours before a Covid-19 burial.

“Within those two hours, we have to prepare the burial plot as we want to minimise the amount of time spent here at the grave by others,” he said.

He said only 10 family members were allowed to attend a Covid-19 burial.

He also said there would be no other burials at the cemetery when a Covid-19 victim was being buried.

Afindi said all the cemetery staff have been vaccinated during the first phase of vaccination for front-liners.

Malaysia has seen more than 3,000 deaths from Covid-19, with 109 deaths reported yesterday. The highest daily death toll is 126 on Wednesday.

The Covid-19 death toll in the past seven days (from May 30) stands at 641, which is more than the 471 recorded in the whole of last year.

Yesterday, there were 886 Covid-19 patients in intensive care, with 446 needing breathing assistance. – June 6, 2021.