(Photo for illustrative purposes only)
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A cemetery in Jakarta, Indonesia is reaching full capacity as the number of burials due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to increase in the country, The Jakarta Post reported.
East Jakarta’s Pondok Ranggon cemetery said that only 1,100 burial spaces are left in its area spanning 7,000 square meters.
“The capacity is likely to be critical in mid-October,” cemetery’s management officer Mr Nadi was quoted Kompas.com as saying.
He added that by October, they may only be able to accommodate about 380 to 400 bodies—a lower figure compared to their average number of 700 bodies buried in a month.
Nadi said that in August, they buried about 27 bodies a day due to COVID-19.
“August 31 set a record, with 36 bodies buried that day, the highest number ever since I was put in charge in March,” he stressed.
He also admitted that they still have not yet come up with a plan regarding reaching full capacity by October, and only hopes that the COVID-19 cases and death toll would reduce so there would be fewer bodies to bury.
Since Pondok Ranggon was established as a COVID-19 burial location in March, The Jakarta Post reported that it has buried 2,623 bodies of people who died from the disease.
