Body bags in high demand as SA's Covid death toll mounts

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As SA continues counting its dead as Covid-19 spreads through the country, body bags are fast becoming a crucial part in the fight against the coronavirus.

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National health department spokesperson Popo Maja said it was a requirement to place all bodies in a body bag, even if the body was placed in a coffin before burial. But he said only one body bag was necessary.Anton Gillis, CEO of Ysterplaat Medical Supplies , said they had seen a 450% increase in sales of body bags when compared to a year ago. He said the demand come from funeral homes, which were wrapping the bodies in up to three body bags at a time to prevent the spread of the virus.

Power Plastics Industrial salesperson Roger McCallum said the company received an order of body bags from a private hospital institution at the beginning of lockdown. Now they get between 10 and 20 calls a day for body bags — “many with much the same specification — but there had been no orders from the enquiries

Nandha Naidu, from Endomed Medical and Surgical Supplies, said the company had seen a 30% rise in quantities ordered when compared to last year. He said most of the sales went directly to medical depots in different provinces, to hospitals and to other medical wholesalers. He did not elaborate on who the customers were.

In the beginning, it took time for him to feel comfortable around the dead, he said. Before he worked as a gravedigger, he thought all burials included a coffin. He soon learnt that Muslim burials usually did not. Now he’s used to seeing a body enshrouded in white cotton or linen.

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