As the death toll from Covid-19 rises with the second wave of the pandemic, communities have been warned to shift from the old ways of sending off loved ones or face being swallowed up by the Covid-19 “death trap”.
The warning bell was first sounded by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, who attributed the latest surge in infections in the country to funerals and gatherings, describing them as “deathtraps”.
Ramaphosa said funerals have consistently been identified as among so-called “super spreader” events.
Yesterday medical and traditional experts also sounded the alarm bells on funerals, cautioning that burials posed a significant risk of spreading the Covid-19 virus further and leaving mayhem in their wake.
Dr Ruby Zauka, a lecturer in applied language studies at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, said the black community in particular needed to change funeral culture in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic in order to save lives.
“Sometimes change is difficult but we need to adhere to the government’s instructions on how we behave in funerals. It’s either we adapt or die. People who are dying now die knowing about Covid-19 and the destruction it’s causing to our lives...,” Dr Zauka said.
"All we need to do is to talk with the deceased from the moment we fetch them from the mortuary to the burial so that they know what is happening. When Covid subsides then we can go to their graves and perform appropriate rituals.”
The latest adjusted lockdown level 3 regulations imposed by the government in order to slow down the spread Covid-19 infections in the country stipulate that funerals can be attended by a maximum of 50 mourners, with a duration of two hours. Night vigils and after-funeral gatherings are prohibited.
National Institute of Communicable Diseases executive director Prof Adrian Puren said the maximum of 50 funeral attendees was reasonable and that the number should be reduced even further when the funeral venue is smaller.
"Government needs to communicate and encourage communities to adhere to guidelines and not police them. Culture needs to also adapt or we will simply continue to bury people until we all die," said Prof Puren.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, chairperson of the SA Medical Association, said the government has politicised Covid-19 by prioritising traditions and customs when it comes to funerals.
“We have always proposed to government that the maximum of funeral attendees should be kept to between 10 and 20 people as numbers of infections have pointed to funerals as super spreaders. Zoom funerals are another option that should be explored. We need to adapt or die,” said Dr Coetzee.
But the current restrictions of 50 people allowed to attend a funeral is “too small for some”. Kwanele Ndlovu, a Sowetan columnist, said she recently had to confront her own mother,67, who has been a regular attendee of funerals in her community in the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Ndlovu said her mother has been to at least five funerals in the past 10 months.
“The older generation is the biggest problem. They want to go to all the funerals and support the grieving families. My mom sat on the mattress for four days and then came home. She has this feeling that she can’t be absent because the community also came when we buried my brother last year. It’s an absurd way of thinking,” said Ndlovu.
Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba at the weekend shared a poster developed to discourage communities from attending funerals in numbers and urged people to instead offer “virtual support” to grieving families.
Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA general secretary Zolani Mkiva said it was easy to persuade the black community to change its mindset around Covid-19.
“It’s easy to educate people but it’s a lot harder when you have to educate people who are living in pain after losing their loved ones. Initially people wore masks to avoid arrests but now people have been enlightened and they know the importance of a mask. We can do the same with Covid-19 burials,” said Mkiva.
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