The Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, in a dispatch to which Lusa had access this Monday, says that after three years of living together and accumulating health knowledge, based on evidence about covid-19 worldwide, it was confirmed initial technical assumptions and new guidelines have also emerged on the construction and maintenance of funeral graves for people with covid-19.
One of the guidelines is to ensure that people who were or are in contact with the deceased, for professional and family reasons, are protected from infection by covid-19, refers to the order.
"In this category, all health professionals, funeral directors, mortuary operators and family members are included," she adds.
The document, dated February 3, 2023, was only made public now, following videos and photographs that circulated on social networks, where people deplored the alleged "state of abandonment" of the tomb of the former governor of Luanda province and from Uíge, Sérgio Luther Rescova, who died, in 2020, from the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Rescova was buried in the Benfica Cemetery, in Luanda, in a wing where other victims of covid-19 were also buried.
In a statement released on social media, the politician's family justified the simplicity of the tomb with the need to follow the health standards imposed by MINSA.
"There are times to be respected. We, the family, are complying with this established time, so that a definitive grave is made", informs the statement quoted by Correio da Kianda.
The ministerial entity justifies the directive by safeguarding fundamental principles, namely the "safety and well-being" of all people involved in the management and handling of the bodies of those killed with covid-19 and the dignity of the deceased and their closest loved ones.
"This is a humanitarian imperative that must guide the management of the dead in all circumstances", stresses the dispatch from Sílvia Lutucuta.
