Guía para el protocolo de exhumación restos de cadáveres covid-19 en cementerios patrimoniales de Colombia

Abstract

Four years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Colombia the stipulated times are beginning to be fulfilled to start the exhumations of the remains that were buried due to the demand that exceeded the capacity of the crematoriums in the country and in this case, in Bogotá, however, the conditions in which these corpses were buried do not allow an exhumation protocol as the one already established in the regulations, therefore it was necessary to carry out this research considering elements such as: the accumulation of gases and leachates, the required personal protection elements, the recognition of corpses by the families and their final disposal. Similarly, and due to the patrimonial and historical character of the Central Cemetery of Bogota, it was considered how the pandemic had managed to turn the gaze towards these spaces and how it is necessary to manage the cemeteries in terms of their conservation, as well as the relationship that can be given with the management of mourning, the resignification of death and the necessary education and training to the whole community about the risks and the state of these bodies in order to carry these mourning to a better end. This document consolidates an integral proposal, which does not intend to replace the official protocols, but to be a tool to develop them and to carry out this procedure in the most efficient way possible, mitigating the existing risks.