By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu,May 1: A new guideline of the government does not allow the family members and relatives of those who died due to COVID-19 to cremate the body.
Specially trained Nepali Army’s Patient Rescue Team (PRT) will be the authorised squad to manage the bodies and cremate them instead of the relatives and family members, according to the guideline related to the management of dead body infected with COVID-19.
In case a COVID-19 patient died while undergoing treatment in isolation ward, respective family members will be allowed to see the face of the deceased standing two metres away from the opening of the specially designed jacket for keeping the body.
The family members will, however, be given to perform the rituals like performing worship, offering water standing two metres away from the body before taking the body to the crematory, according to Brigadier General of Nepali Army Bigyan Dev Pandey.
Ambulance and bag disinfection will be done by the PRT from outside, he said.
If a COVID-19 patient dies at a home, people involved in the final rites of the relative should compulsorily sanitize their hands, use surgical gloves, and put off the clothes and take bath, according to the guideline.
If the family members wished to go up to the cremation spot, they can attend with low presence and see the cremation sitting two metres away.
According to the guideline, before keeping the body inside the body-carrying ambulance, the bag of the body should be cleaned with one per cent hypochlorite and 70 per cent ethanol.
Also, after taking out the body from the ambulance, the ambulance should be cleaned by using 70 per cent ethanol and one per cent hypochlorite,
Similarly, the isolation beds, room, and other goods like table, saline stand, floor, and bed sheets should be washed by using one per cent hypochlorite and 70 per cent ethanol.
Meanwhile, Nepali Army Thursday performed a rehearsal regarding the management of the body of people killed by the COVID-19 infection.
Mid-Eastern Division of the Army conducted a 30-minute demo on the management of the body at Rajbiraj-based stadium this afternoon.
The demo was performed by the specially trained Patient Receiving Team (PRT) of the NA.
The demo was mainly done to show how the body of a COVID-19 victim is carried from the hospital and house to the crematory including the method of disinfecting the ambulance that is used to carry the body.
Vehicle and ambulance disinfection rehearsal was also performed during the demo.
Major Madhav Thapa said that the PRT team also performed the demo by categorising red, blue and green zone to treat an infected patient.
The PRT team had used six different types of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for handling different cases of patients and their health conditions.
According to Thapa, the demo will help build better coordination among the security bodies while managing the body if a situation really comes to manage the body of COVID-19 patients in Nepal.