A family was forced to hire an ice-cream freezer to keep the dead body of a Corona Patient

India: A family in Kolkata was forced to hire an ice-cream freezer to keep the body of a 71-year-old man who died at home on Monday, hours after being tested for coronavirus. The body was removed by civic authorities after 48 hours of horror and helplessness.

The family’s two-day nightmare started when doctors refused to issue a death certificate without the COVID-19 test result. Without the death certificate, mortuaries refused to accept the body.

Calls to the health department, civic authorities, the police and politicians did not help.

On Tuesday morning, the desperate family got home an ice-cream freezer to preserve the body, rapidly decomposing in the heat. That evening, the test returned positive for the virus.

The body was finally removed by the civic authorities at 2 pm yesterday, 48 hours after the man death. The building in which the man lived was sanitised 50 hours after he died.

The elderly man had gone to the doctor on Monday for breathing difficulties had was asked to take a coronavirus test. His health worsened when he returned home and he died soon after.

The doctor visited the man’s apartment wearing a PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) suit. But he refused to issue a death certificate and urged the family to contact the local police because it was a coronavirus case.