Hospital buries 63 bodies in mass burial

**Port Moresby General Hospital staff removing bodies from morgue for mass burial. – Nationalpics by Kennedy Bani**

THE bodies of 54 adults and nine children were buried at the 9-Mile cemetery in Port Moresby yesterday after being left “unclaimed” in the Port Moresby General Hospital’s mortuary for the past six months.
Hospital medical services director Dr Kone Sobi said it was the first mass burial for the hospital this year.
He said 250 bodies had been kept in the mortuary since March because no relative had come to claim them.
“The hospital is saddened by the fact that a mass burial is not our Melanesian way of sending off the dead. This is an unfortunate situation beyond our control,” he said.
“There has been an increase in the number of bodies brought to the mortuary each day during the current (Covid-19) surges.

**Staff of the Port Moresby General Hospital putting an unclaimed body into a coffin for mass burial at 9-Mile cemetery yesterday. – Nationalpics by Kennedy Bani**

“As a result, the hospital was burdened with the issue of overcrowding.”
Dr Sobi said conducting a mass burial for more than 50 bodies was an expensive exercise.
“I thank the National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop and the National Capital District Commission for coming on board to support this initiative,” he said.
He said K90,000 was spent yearly for mass burials, with three to four done a year.
Dr Sobi said the hospital was in the process of identifying more unclaimed bodies for another mass burial. “We have sent out notices and are giving their relatives time to come and claim the bodies,” he said.
Two trucks transported the 63 coffins to the cemetery yesterday.