Written Answers to Questions

¶ 01 ### 289/2024 - Burial of COVID-19 Victims: Details

¶ 02 Question asked by The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law, from the Minister of Health and Mass Media:

¶ 03 (a) Will he inform this House— (i) whether he is aware that due to local and international protests against the cremation of the bodies of those who died of COVID-19, the bodies were buried in a plot of land in the “Majma Nagar” area of Batticaloa; (ii) the name, address, religion and gender of each person who died and was buried in this manner, the number under which his or her remains were registered, the date of burial, the number of persons permitted to attend the burial of each deceased person and the names and addresses of those persons who attended, separately; (iii) whether attendees at the burial of each deceased person were charged any fee; (iv) if so, what amount was so charged; and (v) the institutions/individuals who were authorized to collect the money? (b) If not, why?

¶ 04 Answer by The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayathissa, Minister of Health and Mass Media and Chief Government Whip:

¶ 05 (a) (i) Yes. (ii) From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the number of corpses infected with COVID-19 that had been disposed of through burial is 3,634. According to information available at the Ministry of Health, the number of dead bodies buried by gender and religion is as follows: - Female: 1,409 - Male: 2,225 - Total: 3,634 - Muslims: 2,992 - Buddhists: 287 - Hindus: 270 - Catholics: 85 - Total: 3,634

¶ 06 In collecting data on the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary intention of the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health was to control the epidemic. As the other data requested are not directly related to disease control, such data are not available in the Ministry.

¶ 07 The numbers under which the dead bodies were registered, the date of burial, the number of persons permitted to attend the burial of each deceased person, and the names and addresses of those persons who attended are not within the scope of this Ministry.

¶ 08 (iii) Not relevant to the scope of this Ministry. (iv) Not relevant to the scope of this Ministry. (v) Not relevant to the scope of this Ministry.

¶ 09 (b) Does not arise.