Undertakers work round the clock as deaths soar

Undertaker Muhammad Rafieudin Zainal Rasid handles as many as 30 Covid-19 funerals a day. Last year, he handled one such funeral a week, or one every two weeks.

The number of Covid-19 fatalities in Malaysia began multiplying in April, rising to a record 207 on Monday and yesterday.

This figure is projected to escalate in tandem with the surging number of daily infections in the country, which recorded 17,045 cases on Sunday, the highest since the pandemic began.

The health crisis has seen hospitals and Covid-19 assessment centres flooded with patients in recent weeks, and ambulances rushing around Kuala Lumpur ferrying Covid-19 patients have become a common sight.

"The authorities told us they expect a rise in the number of deaths over the next three to six months, with 120 a day just in the Klang Valley alone, and 200 to 300 a day nationwide. This is worrying," Mr Muhammad Rafieudin told The Straits Times.

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah warned on Sunday the daily caseload is expected to rise to 24,000 in September.

Malaysia had 234 Covid-19 deaths in April, but in May the figure soared to a high of 1,290 despite the imposition of tighter restrictions under a so-called movement control order.

Last month, 2,374 deaths were registered despite the "total lockdown" that began then. As at yesterday, 8,408 people in the country had died from the virus.

Scenes of hospital staff in full protective gear carrying the bodies of Covid-19 patients from the morgue to the hearse play out dozens of times a day at hospitals.

The government opened a one-stop mortuary centre in Kuala Lumpur last week to deal with the rising number of bodies in the capital. It is equipped with five containers that can hold 225 bodies.

Viral photos of bodies stacked at hospitals and morgues are real, said Mr Muhammad Rafieudin, who is among the undertakers in the Klang Valley working round the clock. "Some bodies have to be kept in the morgue for three or four days. Yesterday, we had a case of a Covid-19 patient who died at home and the hospital could not collect the body for more than 12 hours due to a lack of staff or ambulances. The family could not do anything because they were under quarantine. This is what is happening," he said last Friday.

"The (number of cases is) getting so high that we're now facing a shortage of coffins. The crematoriums are fully booked every day," said Mr Kelvin Teh, another undertaker.

Mr Muhammad Rafieudin is so busy these days that he has been able to get only two to three hours of sleep a day. "The rest of the time, I have to stand by to receive calls, sometimes at 2am, 3am or 4am, guide families through the process, take notes, deploy my teams to retrieve the bodies and carry out the burials. We have 10 teams going out each day," he said.

He founded the volunteer Malaysian Funeral Management Squad some five years ago to help families that cannot afford funeral costs. It handles both Muslim and non-Muslim funerals, including complex cases involving decomposed or HIV-positive bodies.

After Covid-19 hit Malaysia, Mr Muhammad Rafieudin was concerned about the manner in which to bury the dead.

"Before this, I had already learnt how to handle bodies with HIV and Ebola. But the coronavirus is not the same as HIV, which spreads only through needles, sexual contact and blood transfusions. Covid-19 spreads more easily, through air and water, so I started to worry," he said.

Undertakers must wear full personal protective gear when handling a Covid-19 fatality, while the bodies are wrapped in two layers of body bags.

Mr Teh, 32, who inherited Hock Thai Casket and Funeral Services from his father, said the coffins must be covered in multiple layers of wrapping.

Everything from the personnel and the hearse must also be sanitised multiple times throughout the process and personal protective equipment is burned at the end of each funeral.

"(Throughout) the journey from the moment we place the coffin in a hearse to after the cremation at a crematorium, workers have to be disinfected. Even the hearse needs to be disinfected," he said.

For Muslims, washing the bodies is an essential ritual, but this is not permitted for those who died from Covid-19.

They can undergo only a dry purification process using sand or dust on top of the body bags.

Muslims must also be buried within 24 hours of death, but with the rising fatality rate, this is not always possible.

Despite the many safety measures, undertakers remain concerned about being infected.

"Every week we go through Covid-19 tests. Our shop will go through a few rounds of disinfection," said Mr Teh.

Mr Muhammad Rafieudin was infected with the coronavirus last month - a harrowing experience.

"I didn't need oxygen but I couldn't hold my breath for more than three seconds. Sometimes it felt like I was underwater. It was painful. I thought to myself, so this is what Covid-19 feels like. This is what all the bodies I handled went through. I imagined my own funeral and wondered if it would be carried out the same way as for other Covid-19 bodies, and I shed tears, thinking that I have so much work left unfinished in life. But thank God I survived."

While undertakers are at risk of stress and burnout like many people on the front line battling the disease, Mr Muhammad Rafieudin said his job keeps him going.

"Even though I don't get enough sleep, I am happy to help the families. Sometimes they call me in tears saying there are delays of two or three days at the hospital. So I try to speed up the process. They are grateful and I am very happy because I get to help them."

For the living, he had this piece of advice: "Covid-19 is real. Please stay safe. I know everyone is stressed from being under lockdown for so long, staying at home. But we have no choice. We have to do this while waiting for everyone to be vaccinated."

• Additional reporting by Yusof Asyraf