However, instead of chanting prayers and sprinkling holy water from the Ganges River, all Singh could do was place the plastic bag wrapping his 70-year-old mother’s body on a wooden pyre and watch the cremation with a few relatives.
`I never thought I would see my mother pass away like this,` he said.
The body of a person who died of Covid-19 was transferred from an ambulance to a crematorium in New Delhi on June 5.
Like many other places around the world, Covid-19 has caused hasty burials of the dead in New Delhi, largely avoiding memorial ceremonies.
New Delhi has recorded nearly 1,100 Covid-19 deaths, but cemeteries and crematoriums in the city say the actual number is several hundred higher than published figures.
`Initially, I used to only carry one body. Now, the morgue workers will load as many bodies as possible into my car,` said Bhijendra Dhigya, who drove from the hospital to the crematorium.
The number of deaths in New Delhi is increasing as Covid-19 is also spreading widely
India with about 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths every day.
Today, India surpassed the UK, becoming the fourth largest epidemic area in the world with 297,535 nCoV infections and 8,498 deaths.
Medical facilities in New Delhi are under strain.
At that time, New Delhi will need 80,000 hospital beds, while currently there are only nearly 9,000 beds for Covid-19 patients.
New Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat crematorium has handled more than 500 cases since the outbreak.
Although crematoriums have extended their working hours, there is no time for families to conduct worship and memorial ceremonies.
Relatives watch the burial of a Covid-19 victim at a cemetery in New Delhi on June 5.
Covid-19 also makes it impossible for Muslim burial ceremonies to take place.
However, bodies are now being taken to New Delhi’s largest Muslim cemetery in hearses driven by workers wearing protective suits.
This cemetery has received more than 200 Covid-19 victims and with bodies continuing to arrive, graves are quickly filling up.
On a recent day, at the burial of a 22-year-old man who died from Covid-19, an excavator hurriedly dug a grave as four relatives hurriedly prayed.
Mohammad Shameem, a gravedigger overseeing the burial of the bodies, shook his head in frustration as the excavator quickly moved on to dig another grave.
Hannah