It should now make sense why China was so adamant in cremating bodies as the fast-spreading virus terrorized Wuhan earlier this year. That is because, a new report published on April 11 says a medical examiner recently passed away after contracting COVID-19 from a corpse.
The incident took place in Bangkok, Thailand, at an unknown date, when a medical worker was infected with the virus after conducting tests on a COVID-19 corpse, the study said, which was recently published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.
The death of the medical examiner "is the first report on COVID-19 infection and death among medical personnel in a Forensic Medicine unit," according to the authors.
Authors Won Sriwijitalai and Viroj Wiwanitkit wrote in the journal that forensic medical professionals must wear a "protective suit, gloves, goggles, a cap, and a mask" while operating on COVID-19 corpses.
"There is a low chance of forensic medicine professionals coming into contact with infected patients, but they can have contact with biological samples and corpses," they explained.
The authors also suggested that the same disinfection protocols used in operating rooms must be applied to forensic units.
In the US, the dead are piling up at hospitals across the country. By Wednesday morning (April 14), total COVID-19 deaths have topped nearly 26,000 – leaving morgue storage capacity at many hospitals overflowing with bodies. Refrigerated trailers have been called in to increase storage at some facilities, specifically in New York City and Detroit.
And maybe there are some uncanny parallels of today's COVID-19 pandemic and with the 2013 movie "World War Z"…
