400 euros for victims' burial by COVID-19 in Kosovo

The procedure for burying people with COVID-19 is based on the Law on Contagional Disease, and any person who dies of coronary infection closes hermetically in coffins and carries up to the cemetery.

Sanitary inspectors have also recommended victims who were infected with coronarys from the beginning to be buried according to recommendations this inspectors received from the World Health Organization (OBSH) and from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Ibrahim Tarschnjak, the Sanitary inspector, announced that any remains that have died of COVID19 are sent to the cemetery with police escorts and to the supervision of the Sanitary Inspectorate.

The burial says it is done without the presence of many people, but only in the presence of close family members who must respect distance.

These people who change lives get into airtight bags and then put in a wooden coffin, which shuts down hermetically and disinfects the coffin. Management these corpses makes people who have experience with corpses with potentially high-risk diseases. Religious procedures such as cleansing or dress are not permitted. After changing lives, they are placed in special spaces and preserved until tomorrow when” is buried, he said.

Meanwhile, Kosovo University Clinical Clinic Director Lindita Ajazaj-Berisha indicated that at the moment of the death of a person who has been infected with coronary, doctors report awareness institutions and the patient's lifeless body withdraws from the hospital.

The moment the patient with COVID-19 dies, we call the Emergency Operations Center and the Center for Disease Prevention and Control. We initially wrap the corpses in the instructions the Inspectorate gave us and then the company deals with further procedures”, Ajazaj-Berisha said.

Currently, in Kosovo, with the preparation of victims with COVIID-19 for their burial and transportation until the cemetery, private company “collection” is taken.

The owner of this company, Blerim Ndreci, says special teams operate in every clinic and municipality in Kosovo.

“If the person who dies has been positive with COVID-19, the National Institute (Public Health of Kosovo) alerts the Ministry of Health and them to us. We as a contracting company are bound to attract every person who dies. We conduct the closing procedure of the coffin, transportation to the cemetery. There are criteria for steps for COVID-19 that we have on our contract. We are responsible for all of Kosovo”, he said.

Ndreci also says there have been cases, although few in number, when a person who has changed his life was only suspected of COVID-19 and only after his burial, his company and family have learned whether the victim has been positive or not. In cases where the victim has proved negative for COVID-19, the spending of the body's airlocking and shipping until the cemetery has not covered either the Health Ministry or the victim's family, but the company itself.

We've had cases of preparing the corpse, taking it to the morgue, and waiting for the result. Then it turned negative, and we had to release the corpse from hermetic and hand over the corpse to the family”, Ndreci said.

Those who change their lives as a result of the Coronavirus are also not subjected to religious rituals, such as cleaning them before burial, Kosovo's deputy capital head, Fatmir Ilazi, tells Radio Free Europe.

Ilazi adds that under normal conditions, a burial costs up to 150 euros.

The majority of Kosovo municipalities have some kind of agreement with citizens who pay burial fees. Under normal conditions, a burial costs up to 150 euros. But it differs from buying coffins and are not unifying prices throughout Kosovo, he said.

From March 13th, when the first Corleone cases were recorded in Kosovo and until September 15th, 14,763 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded. Of them, 601 patients have died and 11,784 have recovered. / REL