The Shenzhen Government obliges the relatives of the deceased not only to provide their death certificate but also a negative coronavirus test
< i class=”i-share-btn email”>
Several people wearing masks wait in line to undergo a COVID-19 test in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, China (REUTERS/TIngshu Wang)
Controversy erupts on Chinese social media< /b> after several media reported that the southeastern metropolis of Shenzhen requires that the deceased who come from confined areas undergo a COVID test before cremation.
According to the local press, when entering the funeral section of the local government mobile application, a pop-up window appears specifying that the relatives of the deceased must not only provide their death certificate but also a negative test of COVID.
Read Also
- Covid Italia, Rasi: “There will be other variants, yes to the green pass” Jul 18, 2021
- Do you have to stop using the mask? Dr. Leana Wen explains May 30, 2021
- Tennis player Darya Kasatkina goes to the 30th final of Roland-Garros May 31, 2021
- Should you take blood thinners before getting the AstraZeneca vaccine? May 28, 2021
- Sales in Pachuca restaurants fall due to the increase in covid infections Aug 21, 2021
- Gabbrielli (Iss): “Telemedicine? ‘For now it’s taking its first steps” Jul 24, 2021
- The race to the pill against covid proceeds in slow motion, but … Apr 19, 2021
Local authorities confirmed this requirement, although they clarified that it is not necessary for the family to take the deceased to a testing center to undergo a PCR, but rather what health personnel can travel to carry out an emergency, whose results can be obtained in about two hours.
A funeral home worker indicated, in statements to the Xinmin media Weekly, that when receiving corpses of people living in confined areas, they should be subjected to pprocesses of “detection (of COVID) and disinfection” to avoid risks of contagion, alleging that, according to some studies, the coronavirus is not deactivated just after the death of the host.
Workers move coffins as morgues run out of stock amid Shenzhen’s lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)
The weekly claims that performing a PCR on the deceased is a “sentinel” measure to protect both their relatives and the workers who participate in the funeral process.
However, a legal expert clarified that, according to Chinese law, The rights and duties of people go from the moment of birth to the moment of death, so family members cannot be charged with the obligation to test the deceased for COVID.
“If the family of the deceased refuses to submit them to a nucleic acid test, the legal basis to penalize them is insufficient”, he points out.
Shenzhen, one of the most important cities in the country with its more than 17.5 million inhabitants, was one of the foci of e the latest outbreaks of COVID -caused by the Ómicron variant-, although it managed to contain it quickly.
(With information from EFE)