Kalibo COVID-19 fatalities buried in cemetery as crematorium closes

The municipality of Kalibo, Aklan has started burying in its cemetery COVID-19 fatalities after the province’s partner crematorium halted its  operations, Mayor Emerson Lachica said Wednesday.

Lachica told GMA News Online that at least three COVID-19 fatalities have been buried so far in the municipal cemetery.

“Mula noong isang gabi, naka-tatlo na kami na na-bury doon sa  aming municipal cemetery (Since the other night, we have buried three in our municipal cemetery),” he said in a phone interview.

On Tuesday, Governor Joeben Miraflores asked the municipalities in the province to prepare their own burial grounds for COVID-19 fatalities after Aklan's  partner crematorium stopped its operations.

Because the municipal cemetery is almost fully occupied, Lachica said they used the vacant spaces in the cemetery like the alleys to provide a final resting place for the COVID-19 fatalities.

The mayor said the town records two to three COVID-19 deaths a day.

The partner crematorium, which is located in Iloilo, advised the local government that they will stop giving services for two weeks.

Lachica said local officials in the province have asked President Rodrigo Duterte to deliver more vaccines to Kalibo.

With a population of 90,000, Kalibo already received over 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The mayor said they need at least 50,000 doses more.

At the Laging Handa public briefing, Miraflores said 184 deaths were reported in the province since March 2020. At least 137 of them were recorded just in the past three months this year.

Miraflores also raised concern on the hospital utilization rate in the province, which already reached over 80 percent.

According to him, only seven percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, while 11 percent of their target vaccinees have received the first dose.—LDF, GMA News