This was the grim scene where medics in hazmat suits had to bury a suspected Covid-19 victim by hand - because locals were afraid to lend them shovels.<br /><br />The Covid-19 Task Force arrived after the man was believed to have died from the virus in a village in East Java, Indonesia, last Sunday (Aug 9).<br /><br />Officers said the corpse was carried to a nearby cemetery but nobody in the area was willing to lend them hoes or shovels amid fears their tools could be infected. <br /><br />Instead, they team in protective suits had to scrape the earth back over the body as it lay in the hole, which had already been dug.<br /><br />A number of officers wearing white personal protective equipment were seen busy digging the ground using their hands.<br /><br />"We were forced to use bare hands without any help from tools such as shovels or hoes," said an officer, whose name was not identified.<br /><br />Indonesia has suffered 127,083 cases of Covid-19 and 5,765 deaths - one of the highest tolls in Asia.<br /><br />The officer said residents around the burial site did not want to lend them their hoes in the Ambulu District of Jember Regency.<br /><br />They were worried about catching the coronavirus, even though the dead person had not been confirmed as having the illness and the medics were waiting for test results.<br /><br />Staff said the funeral process uses procedures according to the Covid-19 handling protocol.<br /><br />"Even though the bodies buried were not confirmed to be positive for Covid-19, but they must be buried according to the Covid-19 protocol because the current condition is still in a pandemic," said the officer.<br /><br />As a result of this incident, the funeral process took longer. It took the officers about 30 minutes to fill the grave with a length of 2.3 meters, a width of one meter and a depth of 1.5 meters.<br /><br />The source added that officers did not carry shovels because they were used for burials at other locations.
