Cape Town - The Maitland Crematorium has reported a high demand for cremations due to Covid-19 deaths, the City of Cape Town said on Tuesday.
Mayco member for community services and health Zahid Badroodien said the crematorium was operating at full capacity, but due to the high volumes there may be a delay in having ashes available for collection.
Badroodien said the demand for cremations had increased by three times more than before the pandemic. Although burials remained high, there was a downward trend, with 500 in the past week.
“While this is good news, the bad news is that people use it as an opportunity to relax health protocols and forgo wearing masks and regular hand washing. The possibility of further waves is real and we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard,” Badroodien said.
He said 12% of the burials were confirmed to be Covid-19 burials. There were 150 burials at Maitland Cemetery, 92 at Welmoed Cemetery and 87 at Klip Road Cemetery.
Badroodien said in the past three weeks the Maitland Crematorium had reported its highest number of cremations since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, reaching up to 250 cremations a week.
“This has been consistently high since the beginning of the second wave and the facility will remain operating at maximum capacity for approximately three more weeks,” Badroodien said.
He said the city had considered and implemented all available options to increase capacity at the crematorium, including extended operation hours, installing additional temporary storage capacity and seeking authorisation from the Provincial Air Emissions Authority to operate cold cremators at the facility.
“With the additional capacity available for use from this week onwards, it is anticipated that more cremations will be processed daily to ease the backlog and alleviate pressure on the system.
“It is important to note that while the City has optimised capacity, the extraordinarily high demand is still exceeding the capacity of the facility and the crematorium will be unable to meet the normal 72-hour turnaround time which is the normal standard for cremations,” Badroodien said.
He added the city will continue to seek alternative mechanisms to further increase capacity at the crematorium.
African News Agency (ANA)