A family had to hire a freezer used to store ice creams to preserve the body of an elderly man at their Amherst Street flat for two days, till the report of his Covid-19 test arrived on Wednesday.

The 71-year-old had symptoms of Covid-19 and underwent a swab test on Monday morning. He passed away in the afternoon.

A neighbour of the deceased said that after he passed away, the doctor who had suggested a Covid-19 test did not issue a death certificate suspecting that the man might have been suffering from the disease.

The family then approached multiple authorities, including the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, but none apparently could offer any help.

The civic body is in charge of cremation and burial of bodies of Covid patients and family members are not allowed any role in the rituals.

The state government and the CMC have designated a crematorium at Dhapa for cremation of Covid-19 bodies. Burial of such bodies is done at the Bagmari burial ground.

“The family (of the 71-year-old) was not sure how to preserve the body if it could not be cremated till the results came. They approached the CMC, the health department and the police for cremation or for preserving the body till cremation. But none could say anything with clarity,” said Puranjit Sil, a neighbour of the deceased.

The family had approached some private mortuaries but none agreed to keep the body fearing the man had contracted the coronavirus.

Finally, the family had to hire a freezer and keep the body inside it in their flat till Wednesday afternoon, when a CMC team arrived to take away the body.

A CMC official said there are strict guidelines for cremation or burial of bodies of Covid patients.

The guidelines say that such a body must be placed “in leak-proof plastic body bag. The exterior of the body bag can be decontaminated with 1% hypochlorite. The body bag can be wrapped with a mortuary sheet or sheet provided by the family members.... The body, secured in a body bag, exterior of which is decontaminated, poses no additional risk to the staff transporting the dead body.”

A CMC official said: “After someone dies of Covid-19, the health department intimates us. We take the body for funeral or burial…. If someone dies before the result arrives, the body is not cremated or buried till the test result comes.”