The Gautam Buddh Nagar health department received 18 more bodies for postmortem on June 21 amid heatwave conditions, taking the number of autopsies carried out in four days to 93, officials said on Saturday.
The department has also started DNA sampling of unidentified bodies, they said.
“On June 21, we received 18 more bodies for postmortem. Out of these, six bodies are unidentified,” Chief Medical Officer Dr Suneel Kumar Sharma said.
“Now, we have started one more thing. We are taking DNA samples of unidentified bodies and will hand them over to police whenever required,” Sharma said.
With this, these bodies can be disposed timely and the pile up at the mortuary can be reduced, he added.
From June 18 to 20, the department received at least 75 bodies for autopsy but could not directly linked those to heatwave, Sharma told reporters on Friday.
Earlier, he said the number of bodies usually received at mortuary for postmortem in the district was around seven or eight daily, but this number has swelled up over 20 of late.
He also described the rise in daily numbers as “unexpected”.
On the heatwave impact, the CMO said there is no doubt the weather is extreme and it’s “not usual heat”.
“This heat is something else, the content of humidity in the weather has also risen of late. This is painful heat and chances of death increase in it.” “The impact of heat is not equal on everybody. Those who are completely healthy can bear it. If you live in rural areas and spend time under trees, maybe then also you can bear the heat,” he said.
“But here in cases of construction workers, security personnel, even traffic police and volunteers, they need to use a cap on their head, consume ORS and not stay in the open for long. Such measures can help save lives,” the doctor added.
Sharma said private hospitals like Kailash, Felix, Fortis have extended their support to government hospital by allowing their mortuary freezers for keeping the bodies.
