As Singapore sees more Covid-19 deaths than last year, what happens to the bodies of patients without families?

A rise in cases has put pressure on the city state’s funeral service industry to adjust to handling more Covid-19 deaths

Funeral workers and religious leaders stand in for family at wakes and cremations when there are no mourners

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Funeral workers wear personal protective equipment before collecting a Covid-19 patient’s body. Photo: Marielle Descalsota

Published: 12:10pm, 30 Nov 2021Updated: 3:48pm, 1 Dec 2021

When it comes to death, veteran embalmer Dennis Pedrozo has seen it all in his 24 years of preserving bodies. But nothing prepared him for the Covid-19 pandemic, which has changed long-standing funeral practices.

While Singapore’s Covid-19 death toll remains one of the lowest in the world, there was a sudden spike in infections and deaths in October, following clusters linked to karaoke lounges and fishery ports.

Singapore recorded 30 Covid-19 deaths in the 14 months following the country’s first confirmed cases on January 23 last year. However, the Delta variant outbreak caused a surge in cases, with 391 deaths between April 1 and November 1.

As of November 23, the city state had logged over 250,000 infections and 667 Covid-19 related deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

As funeral parlours cope with the rising death toll, Pedrozo has had to trade his embalming tools for full-suit personal protective equipment (PPE) to transport deceased Covid-19 patients from hospitals to crematoriums.

While a non-Covid-19 patient may be placed in an open casket, Covid-19 patients’ coffins are airtight, with the glass completely sealed. Photo: Marielle Descalsota

Pedrozo works at Singapore Casket, one of the largest parlours in the country. The parlour handled around 140 to 150 deaths a month prior to the outbreak in early 2020. In October, it handled 190, manager Jeffrey Lee said.