As COVID-19 deaths con­tin­ue to rise through­out the coun­try the avail­abil­i­ty of bur­ial plots for vic­tims in some pub­lic ceme­ter­ies in Cen­tral Trinidad is be­com­ing very scarce.

In fact, at least one ceme­tery is al­most filled to ca­pac­i­ty.

Dur­ing a vis­it to the St Mary’s Pub­lic Ceme­tery, off St Mary’s Junc­tion in Cara­pichaima on Fri­day two COVID-19 fu­ner­als took place back to back of each oth­er. How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia was told by an of­fi­cial that these could be the last two buri­als for COVID vic­tims in that ceme­tery as it had reached full ca­pac­i­ty.

The St Mary’s Pub­lic Ceme­tery is just one of 19 ceme­ter­ies with­in the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion cho­sen to have des­ig­nat­ed ar­eas for COVID buri­als. There are 32 ceme­ter­ies with­in the cor­po­ra­tion.

That sec­tion, ac­cord­ing to a doc­u­ment ac­quired from the Cor­po­ra­tion, dis­closed the des­ig­nat­ed area to be on the north­east­ern side of the Ceme­tery where 40 plots were al­lo­cat­ed. In to­tal, in the 19 COVID des­ig­nat­ed ar­eas in the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro re­gion, there were over 2,271 bur­ial plots.

But, ac­cord­ing to an em­ploy­ee at the Cor­po­ra­tion, it has reached its ca­pac­i­ty with just about 14 or 15 buri­als in that des­ig­nat­ed area at the St Mary’s Pub­lic Ceme­tery.

“This sim­ply means that no more COVID fu­ner­als can take place here at St Mary’s be­cause it does not have any more space and that is what the Cor­po­ra­tion was told to­day (Fri­day),” the Cor­po­ra­tion em­ploy­ee, who did not want to be iden­ti­fied for fear of vic­tim­i­sa­tion, told Guardian Me­dia.

Asked how the graves are iden­ti­fied and their depth, the em­ploy­ee ex­plained that if no bur­ial took place in a plot the gravedig­gers would dig the first grave at nine feet, “on­ly af­ter eight to ten years then a sec­ond body can be buried on that same plot but now at six feet. If it’s a COVID vic­tim for bur­ial the gave would have to be deep­er.”

“So far I have not heard of any com­plaints or con­cerns of the COVID des­ig­nat­ed bur­ial plots around St Mary’s and Bank Vil­lage (sur­round­ing vil­lages to the ceme­tery) but we are in keep­ing with strict guide­lines from the cor­po­ra­tion,” the em­ploy­ee added.

Chair­man of the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion, Hen­ry Awong said so far his cor­po­ra­tion is not wor­ried about COVID bur­ial sites run­ning out. “So far I have not got­ten any re­port with re­gards to space run­ning out as a mat­ter of fact each one of our ceme­ter­ies, most, we have des­ig­nat­ed an area for COVID buri­als. So far that is still op­er­at­ing it have not reached that point where we would have to be con­cerned.

“We checked through all our ceme­ter­ies when it now start­ed and we des­ig­nat­ed ar­eas for COVID buri­als in those that have the ca­pac­i­ty to. So it have some ceme­ter­ies that we do not do COVID buri­als in be­cause it was very lim­it­ed at that time,” Awong added.