Cemetery, graveyards run out of space in Durg amid rising COVID-19 deaths

The cemetery and graveyards in Chhattisgarh's Durg are running out of burial space amid the rising number of COVID-19 deaths in the district.

The Durg administration on Saturday informed that with rising deaths, many bodies have been brought to cremation centres in the last two days, thus creating a burial space crunch.

Durg Collector Dr. Sarveshwar Narendra Bhure said, "Earlier, cremation was being held at two places. With rising deaths in the last two days, many bodies have been brought to cremation centres. We are trying to arrange two or three places for it.

The Durg administration on Friday announced a complete lockdown from April 6 to 14, in light of the spike in COVID-19 cases in the region. Only essential services will be allowed to function.

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo has said that even though the number of daily COVID-19 cases has increased for the past few days in the state, the positivity rate is not as high as compared to September last year.

Speaking to , Deo informed that 4,617 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Thursday, the highest ever recorded in the state since the start of the pandemic.

"In September, the maximum daily cases recorded was 3,900 from about 27,000 tests. The present number of daily cases on Thursday is from 40,000 tests. So the positivity per cent is less as compared to that in September. On Thursday, it was 11.3 per cent and in the September peak, it was over 19 per cent. So we will watch if the positivity increases then it will be worrisome for Chhattisgarh," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )