BULAWAYO residents are no longer observing a council resolution limiting the number of people attending burials at local cemeteries to 30 resulting in crowds being turned away from the graveyards.
Council says in recent weeks mourners have been
disregarding rules with some using buses filled to capacity to go to the
cemeteries. Many of the mourners are being made to wait outside the cemeteries
as council has security details who monitor the numbers at the facilities.
In March, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) came up with a raft
of measures that included limiting the number of people at burials to 30 and
reducing vending stalls to curb the spread Covid-19.
The city has of late been recording an increase in daily
Covid-19 cases with fears that this may lead to a second wave of the virus
which is usually more deadly. As of Monday, the city had recorded 1 615 cases
out of the 8 276 recorded nationally.
BCC Divisional Environmental Health officer, Mr Patrick
Ncube told Chronicle in an interview that they had resorted to turning away
some mourners for not respecting the rules.
“We are witnessing high volumes of people attending
funerals with no social distancing. This results in high infection rates
because of contact between people. As a council we have a resolution that says
only 30 people are allowed at the cemeteries. Residents need to abide by that,”
he said.
Mr Ncube said backfilling of graves is still being done by
council workers as a measure to control crowds at cemeteries. He urged pastors
who oversee burials not to prolong graveside services.
“The reason why we took it upon ourselves as council to
backfill the graves was to reduce numbers. We also call upon our pastors to
stick to time as some of them take long and you find many burials taking place
at the same time but council allocates different times. Our officers are having
to turn back people at the cemeteries once they exceed that number,” he said.
Mr Ncube said it should be the responsibility of the
mourning family to decide the 30 people who go to the burial as their officers
just count the first 30 people and turn away the rest. He also urged the public
to avoid night vigils during funerals as they are also a potential breeding
ground for the virus.
“It’s a living human being who can move the virus from one
place to another. At funerals people come from all over and that puts mourners
at risk. Gathering overnight prolongs the contact between people and the
transmission of the virus. Let us suspend some of our traditions for the sake
of our health. It is a new normal that changes a lot of things that we are used
to,” he said.
Mr Ncube said the number of new cases recorded in recent
days call for greater vigilance in the city.
“In the past few days, we have had a rise in Covid-19
cases. At one time we thought the situation was under control but right now we
are suddenly seeing a rise.
“It calls for us to take all the precautions we were
advised to take from the beginning, things like social distancing, restricting
movements, wearing of face masks and washing of hands, among others,” said Mr
Ncube. He said it was a myth that Covid-19 virus does not spread when it is
hot.
“It has been proven even in these hot months that cases are
still being recorded which means people are still at high risk. The increase in
these local transmissions is testimony enough of that,” he said.
Mr Ncube said huge gatherings always result in a surge in
Covid-19 cases.
He also bemoaned various parties being held around the city
saying they can prove costly. He said even though the Government has allowed
church gatherings with limited numbers, some churches are exceeding the
numbers.
Many countries in Europe are going into second lockdowns as
they are recording alarming numbers of Covid-19 cases.Africa’s worst affected
country, South Africa has in the past few days been recording high numbers of
new cases as members of the public have relaxed in terms of observing health
guidelines. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment