Mexico City, April 20 (RHC)-- Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador administration has prohibited the cremation of unclaimed bodies who died because of COVID-19.

This decision obeys the Law on the Forced Disappearance and Search of Persons, which establishes that "corpses or remains of persons whose identity is unknown or have not been claimed, cannot be cremated, destroyed or disintegrated, or dispose of their belongings."

To bury fully non-cremated bodies, authorities will allocate individual graves or specific graves, which will remain separate from the graves of people who died of other causes.  The Health Prevention and Promotion Undersecretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell expressed that the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the pandemic containment do not include the obligation to incinerate human remains.

He explained that the management of bodies is part of medical care and that "families are free to decide what mechanism they would like for the final services of their dead relatives."

On Friday, Mexico city authorities presented their protocol for the management of people who died because of COVID-19.  They ruled out the practice of autopsy for people killed by COVID-19 and assured that they have spaces to carry out the burials and cremations that the emergency requires.

They also explained that the protocol has legal and sanitary procedures for deaths in hospitals, homes, and public roads.

As of the weekend, Mexico reported 6,875 infections and 546 deaths from COVID-19.