Covid 19 coronavirus: anti-maskers forced to dig graves for virus victims in Indonesia

Indonesian authorities ordered a group of anti-maskers who violated the country’s mask laws to dig graves for Covid-19 victims.

Officials in the East Java province punished eight mask rapists with manual labor in the local cemetery in hopes of dissuading others from ignoring the national mandate to cover their faces, The Jakata Post reported.

The report said the measure is also providing a helping hand to undertakers who are overwhelmed by work.

“There are only three gravediggers available at the moment, so I thought I could put these people to work with them,” Suyono politician told local media, according to the newspaper.

“Hopefully this can create a deterrent effect against violations,” he added.

The rule breakers were not made to handle the corpses, but left it to local health officials wearing full-body personal protective equipment due to the risk of exposure to Covid-19.

A week ago, the police also forced offenders of the mask to sit in a hearse that contained a coffin.

Inside the hearse, violators were asked to reflect on their actions. The task force also reminded them of how the Covid-19 pandemic had claimed many lives.

About 50 vendors and customers at Maron Market took turns staying in the vehicle for several minutes on September 7 as social punishment.

The task force also imposed various other forms of punishment.

“We ordered the vendors to close their store for a week, confiscated the violators’ IDs for three months, and asked some of them to clean the market and open the sewers,” said law enforcement coordinator Ugas Irwanto .

According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, Indonesia has more than 221,000 cases of Covid-19 and has had at least 8,800 deaths.