ILOILO CITY – As cases surge, mayors in 17 towns of Aklan province are told to prepare burial grounds for additional COVID-19 deaths.
“Please be advised to prepare burial grounds for COVID victims in your respective municipalities observing proper protocols in the management and disposition of the disease,” said Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores.
In an August 2 letter to town mayors, Miraflores said that its partner crematorium facility in Iloilo City has stopped receiving any new cadavers.
The Gegato-Abecia Funeral Homes Crematory in Iloilo City is the only facility licensed by the Department of Health (DOH) to cremate persons who died from COVID-19 in Panay Island, which consists of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo provinces.
Dr. Cornelio Cuachon Jr., chief of the Aklan Provincial Health Office (APHO), said that the COVID-19 death rate is at 2.19 percent.
“It is higher than the national average, which is less than two percent,” Cuachon said in a phone interview with Manila Bulletin Tuesday, August 3.
Over the past week alone, Cuachon disclosed that Aklan recorded an average of four to five COVID-19 deaths per day.
“Our hospitals are already overwhelmed right now,” Cuachon added.
As of August 2, there are more than 1,800 active cases of COVID-19 in Aklan.