The Covid-19 Task Force of the local government unit (LGU) of Santo Tomas announced that the Santa Cruz Public Cemetery located in Barangay San Jose has reached its full capacity and could no longer accommodate more burials since the graves had already run up to the boundary line of the cemetery, with no space left for another Covid-19 related burial.
Municipal Information Officer Mart Dumali Sambalud bared in a public briefing that the Santo Tomas Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) noted a significant rise in the number of deaths in Santo Tomas due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Sambalud said as of October 5, 2021, Santo Tomas has registered a total of 141 Covid-related deaths.
“As per Covid-19 regulations on the management of the dead, those who die that cannot afford cremation, especially those positive for Covid-19, would have to be buried within 24 hours,” he said.
According to him, to date, 55 bodies were buried in Santa Cruz Public Cemetery from January 2021 to September 2021, making it the town’s graveyard for Covid-19 deaths.
“And the surge in pandemic-related deaths has created a scarcity in the Covid-19 section of the cemetery,” he said.
Sambalud also said the IATF is now struggling to find space to bury people dying of Covid-19. He said the municipal government’s policy-making body on Covid-19 had met the Punong Barangays last September 20, 2021, to alert them of the situation.
He said the LGU is planning to use its property as a mass grave in case the number of deaths increases.
“That is the contingency plan. For now, we will use the public cemeteries of the barangays. Right now, the public cemetery in Barangay Balagunan is now being used as another graveyard for Covid-19 deaths. But sooner or later, the said cemetery may quickly run out of space to bury Covid-19 casualties. With this grim development, we call all Tomasinos to follow the minimum health protocols to prevent further spread of the virus, especially now that the Delta variant is in the municipality,” he said.
