A local official ordered eight other people in Indonesia who refused to wear a mask in public to dig graves for victims of COVID-19.
While Indonesia faces an increase in COVID-19 cases, the leaders of Cerme, a district in East Java, have implemented stricter implementation of social esttachment and masking policies.
For the other eight people who violated the court order of the local mask, it meant digging graves. The district chief, known through the Indonesian Tribun News as Hisno, proposed punishment for the lack of undertakers in the area.
“There are only three undertakers right now, so I think I could also take those other people to paint with them,” he told Tribune News. “I hope this can create a deterrent against rape,” he said. .
Two other people are assigned to each tomb: one to dig the tomb and one to insert wooden boards into the holes of the bodies. Cremation and embalming are not allowed in Indonesia and bodies are historically buried without a coffin.
Those who did not wear masks were allowed to take part in classical ceremonies, the Jakarta Post reported. According to SBS News in Australia, they were also banned from touching the bodies. Instead, the local government dressed in protective devices had to bury the bodies.
Lately, Indonesia has the number of coronavirus deaths in Southeast Asia, with nearly 8,900 deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country has been forcing others to wear a mask since April.
Contributing: The Associated Press.
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