Indonesia: Dig a grave for COVID-19 victims if you don’t wear a mask

Jakarta, Sep 15: The number of COVID-19 infection is in the surge across the globe. Govt, authorities are implementing different methods to keep safe people and prevent the infection. Yet it seems people are not care enough to follow the rules like wearing masks in public and avoid crowd for their and others' good.

The local authorities in Indonesia's East Java have devised an unconventional strategy to penalise people who refused to wear face masks and asked them to dig graves at a public cemetery in Ngabetan village.

According to a report in The Jakarta Post, eight people who refused to wear face masks in public during the coronavirus pandemic were ordered by local authorities to dig graves for people who died due COVID-19.

"There are only three available gravediggers at the moment, so I thought I might as well put these people to work with them," Cerme district head Suyono told the news agency.

"Hopefully this can create a deterrent effect against violations," Suyono said. He further expressed concerns over the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Cerme, and added that this had resulted in authorities tightening Covid-related protocols in the village.

Suyono assigned two people to each grave to assist the gravediggers. Of the two people, one is tasked with digging the grave while the other with laying wooden boards inside the hole to support the corpse, said the report.

No anti-maskers, who are being punished, are forced to handle the dead bodies, it noted.
Suyono further said that the number of COVID-19 cases continued to increase in Cerme, which had prompted the village administration to strengthen protocols in the region, said the report.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's capital Jakarta has been witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases with more than 54,000 of the nation's 2,18,000 cases. The city also has recorded 1,391 deaths of the nation's toll of 8,723.