GUWAHATI: The National Health Mission (NHM), Assam has floated a tender for purchase of 3000 body bags that are used for storing and transporting shrouded COVID-19 infected corpses.
Given the surge in the number of positive cases and the relative number of deaths, that currently stands at 430, the floating of this tender has added to the paranoia amongst the people of Assam.
Earlier, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that Assam might be staring at 75,000 cases each in the ensuing months of October and November.
G Plus reached out to Dr. Lakshmanan S, Mission Director National Health Mission (NHM) to know more about the government's decision for purchasing the large number of body bags.
Dr. Lakshmanan said, "There are 33 districts in the state. Given the spike in the number of cases we are preparing ourselves. But this does not mean that we are looking forward to higher death rates. People who succumb to co-morbidities are also shrouded in body bags if they tested positive. We do not want the doctors, workers and anyone who handle the cremations to get infected. So we are taking precautionary measures."
