Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa said that it was decided by specialist health authorities that the bodies of those who died due to the COVID-19 epidemic should not be buried and only cremated.
He further said the Cabinet was not the place to make decisions about burying or cremating anyone who died from COVID-19 and the Cabinet had not decided to change that decision at all.
He was speaking to the media after providing an allowance of Rs.5,000 to the people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in several Grama Niladhari Divisions in Malabe in the Kaduwela Divisional Secretariat area yesterday.
“Four hundred and fifty thousand affected families in the Colombo district have been given an allowance of Rs. 5,000 and 9000 families who have been quarantined have been given relief bags of worth Rs.10,000 so far,” he added. He further said that all Sri Lankans should join hands to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic at this juncture leaving aside the debate on what should be done to corpses. MP Pradeep Udugoda and Colombo Government Agent Pradeep Yasaratne were present.
