The West Bengal government has decided to allow family members to see the body of a suspected COVID-19 patient before it was disposed of without waiting for the test results to come, the Chief Minister said on July 28.

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The decision was taken from a humane point of view, she said. She said that as per the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, there is no difference between protocols to be followed for the disposal of bodies of confirmed COVID-19 patients and those of suspected ones. "But the problem is, if the deceased is a suspected COVID case, it takes around 10-12 hours for the test reports to arrive. The family members need to wait till that. Now, there is no need to wait. We will allow them to see the body for half-an-hour, but it will be inside a cover. The disposal will be done as per the ICMR guidelines," she said.

The West Bengal government has been allowing relatives of persons who died due to the contagion to see the body for 30 minutes to pay their last respects but they need to maintain certain norms. She asked people to take precautionary measures and follow sanitisation practices to fight the pandemic. She also warned the people of dengue which affects people during the monsoon.