The body of an 85-year-old woman who had tested positive for Covid-19 remained in her flat at Karunamoyee Housing Estate in Salt Lake for at least 19 hours before it was removed for cremation by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, the family said.

Corporation officials said the reason for the delay was crematoriums were chock-a-block with bodies.

Geeta Kumari, the victim, had tested positive for the disease a few days back. She passed away on Saturday evening after suffering breathing problems, a family member said.

Kumari stayed with brother Ravindra Kumar and his son and daughter-in-law, all of whom are down with Covid and are in home isolation.

The family member said the elderly woman did not respond when a help entered her room on Saturday evening to check on her.

“We realised around 6pm that she was no more and alerted our neighbours. We also called up the local police station for assistance,” the family member said.

The family stays on the third floor of a four-storey building that has at least seven other families living across the floors.

Manas Das, a neighbour, said the family had requested him around 8pm to arrange for Kumari’s cremation.

Das said he immediately called up Bidhannagar East police station, where the duty officer gave him the number of a BMC official. “I was told to contact the official and request him to get the body removed and cremated. We kept calling up the number but no one answered. We then called the ward co-ordinator (Sudhir Kumar Saha), who said he was down with Covid himself and was not in a position to help us,” Das said.

A neighbour then gave Das the number of another civic official. “The second official answered the call and asked us to WhatsApp him the Covid report of the victim. After we sent him the report, he said the body would be taken for cremation late at night,” Das said.

But no civic team went to the flat to take away the body on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, family members as well as neighbours called up civic officials and a hearse finally arrived around 1pm.

“They said all burning ghats were full of bodies and they could not find a place where Geeta Kumari could be cremated. That they said was the reason for the delay,” Das said.

Ward coordinator Saha told Metro: “I am suffering from Covid. I told the family that they needed to get in touch with civic officials as the board had been dissolved.”

A civic official said the bodies of Covid victims were taken to the Nimtala, Dhapa, Khardah or Panihati crematorium.

“We had contacted the Nimtala burning ghat but they said they were not taking any new bodies as the electric pyres would be shut for maintenance. Officials at the Dhapa crematorium said there was a long queue of bodies. Khardah and Panihati crematoriums, too, said the same. So we had to wait till the morning…. Besides, there was no free hearse on Saturday night,” the official said.

He also said they tried but failed to find a place in a morgue where the body could be kept for the night.

A resident on the first floor of the building said they had to spend the night in fear as the building was not sanitised.

“The civic body came and sanitised the building in the afternoon. We shut all our doors and windows after learning about the death and are living in fear now,” said the neighbour.

Public health specialist Abhijit Chowdhury described the residents’ behaviour as “irrational”.

“Shutting doors and windows is not required. It is very unfortunate that people are reacting in this manner,” said Chowdhury.