General Cemetery is preparing by digging 1,000 graves, while enclosures in Santiago and regions are enlisted in the event of a greater demand for graves

This Thursday Chile reached its highest number of deaths since the coronavirus pandemic began: the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Health reported the deaths of 22 people, totaling 368 since the pandemic broke out. The worst thing is that specialists hope that the statistics will continue to increase and that is why the country has had to prepare for the peak of the disease.

Funeral homes and cemeteries accelerate their plans and protocols, which range from digging new graves for the exclusive burial for the deceased by Covid-19, to increasing security in the event of one of these burials.

“As a cemetery we understand the historical mission we have, which is to give a decent burial to the inhabitants who need it. We realize that we are in a particular situation, that pandemics cause more deaths and that is why we have wanted to enable more new graves, approximately a thousand, although I hope we do not use them, “he says. Third Raschid Saud, director of the Santiago General Cemetery.

The official says that about a month and a half ago are preparing for the worst period of the pandemic and clarifies that, contrary to what has been said, no authority has asked them to have more graves available, “neither in writing nor verbally.” He claims that the images of the work being done on the premises is the excavation of 1,000 new tombs that they decided to make available to the population. Saud also says that they do not have a projection of how many of them they will need.

Parque del Recuerdo has also been prepared at its three locations in the Metropolitan Region. This is explained by Paulina Jaramillo, manager of Corporate Affairs. “As for visits to our parks, we have implemented a scheduling system for quotas and schedules,” he says first.

Details which are allowed a maximum of 20 people per funeral, and for those who are due to death by Covid-19 only ten. The wakes, meanwhile, continue to operate, but with a maximum of 5 attendees on-site simultaneously.

They add that they follow the protocol delivered by the Ministry of Health in relation to those killed by covid-19 who are buried or cinemed in their parks. “To the cemeteries the urns must arrive sealed and must not be opened under any circumstances, whether at the time of burial or filming,” Jaramillo points out.

Juan Andrés Fuentealba, general manager of the Home of Christ Funeral Home and spokesperson for the Funeral Home Working Table, Cemeteries and Crematories for Covid-19, review of his guild: “We have been preparing since practically February or March, stocking ourselves with everything necessary”.

As an example, Fuentealba says about his funeral home that although they have an average of 500 monthly funeral services without a pandemic, in March they acquired 1,500 coffins. “Three times more our production,” he says, before adding that they have had to “spend a lot of resources on personal protection items, because we saw in the rest of the world that funeral officials did not take care of themselves and were contagious.”

He also says that they have bought more than 10,000 masks, almost 5,000 white protection divers and innumerable sanitation elements for the floats and foot cleaners for the wakes.

Although the protocol for funerals for deceased by Covid-19 designed by the Ministry of Health does not specify that burials must be in special areas, some cemeteries have adopted this measure.

“The General Cemetery is quite large, it has 86 hectares and we can take remote places. We are making those 1,000 new graves in courtyard 134, which has not been used for 20 years. We have been able to enable it for this contingency ”, contributes Saud, the director of that place.

In this regard, although in Parque del Recuerdo they chose not to refer to the creation of new graves by the contingency, they do say that despite being in constant communication with government authorities, “for the moment we have not received any special request, beyond of those determined in the protocol delivered by the Ministry of Health that indicates certain sanitary conditions throughout the process. “

In provincial cemeteries they are also preparing a possible increase in the demand for graves, and together with updating their protocols, they are also looking for ways to respond to the possible increase in burial requests.

In the Chillán Municipal Cemetery, for example, they say that they have done important things to prepare for some weeks, although they have not seen, for now, the number of burials increased. And just as in the Ñuble Region, in the General Cemetery of Temuco they chose to close their doors until further notice, as in the Antofagasta cemetery.