The exhumation of coronavirus victims in Greece has become a huge problem

Caring for those who have died from coronavirus has been and continues to be challenging. There were strict instructions for their burial. Now the authorities have to solve serious problems with their exhumation.

Let’s explain why this is necessary. The fact is that in Greek cities, if you have not purchased the land in the cemetery for personal use, the body of the deceased will be exhumed after 3 years and placed in a large pit – a common burial ground. For remembrance by relatives and friends, there is an option in which the ashes will be placed in an urn, which can be placed in a special niche, which is also rented for a certain period.

A serious problem arose with those who died from coronavirus – their bodies, packed in plastic bags and then placed in concrete graves, decomposed very slowly, since there was no access to air and grave worms.

The first to sound the alarm was at the new cemetery in the city of Larisa, when attempts to exhume the dead recognized as victims of the coronavirus were begun, but stopped at the very beginning, as it turned out that the decomposition of the bodies had not progressed.

What is the reason that the body does not decompose

There are two reasons for this. According to the Onlarissa portal, which raised this issue, one of them is that the dead are in plastic bags. Sometimes in one, more often in two, but there are cases when, when transferred from the morgue, they were placed in a triple bag. This was, after all, a directive that hospitals followed without any interference from funeral directors.

The second reason is that even their coffins were wrapped in a plastic bag, and often they were also lined with concrete. Most funeral homes did this, which was obviously done for the greater safety of relatives and friends, so as not to spread the virus. Especially in the first years, when there was still a lot of ignorance about how to behave in this situation.

“Now this will happen even more often”

The newspaper “Eleftheria” contacted both employees of the Larisa cemetery department and funeral home professionals, who confirmed the incidents. “This kind of thing,” they said, “will now happen even more often, because it is three years since the death of the first people declared infected with coronavirus.”

According to cemetery rules, after three years from the date of burial, relatives are notified of the exhumation and have the right to ask for an extension of up to five years. However, after this, city services can begin exhumation.

“It’s a matter of physics, so the decomposition of the body cannot continue. In some cases there is so much plastic that the coffin is not even replaced. In others, the bags are closed and the air necessary for decomposition cannot get inside.” – say the workers.

In these early cases, workers carefully open the coffin lid and laboriously tear open the plastic bags to allow the lifeless bodies to decompose.

This problem worries not only the municipality of Larisa, but also many other municipalities. It will further aggravate the situation with overcrowding of cemeteries, since those who died from the coronavirus will remain in them much longer than usual.

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