Rome, March 18 (beraking latest news Health) – As part of the control activities carried out in the period of health emergency, the Carabinieri Command for the protection of health, in agreement with the Minister of Health, has concluded a vast campaign of checks conducted at national level at the facilities for the permanence of the deceased in public hospitals and private clinics, in order to ascertain their regularity and compliance with the prevention measures against contagion from Covid-19. In this context, 375 inspections were carried out between morgues and mortuaries inside the hospitals, as well as similar areas used for farewell, attributable to private funeral companies and related cemetery services, detecting irregularities in 85 cases.
Overall, 23 people were referred to the judicial authorities and another 78 people were reported to the administrative authorities, including managers of health facilities and hospitals, as well as owners of private funeral homes for violations of the regulations on safety in the workplace, non-compliance with the obligations of the anti- Covid and regional and mortuary police laws, challenging 102 criminal and administrative sanctions.
Among the irregularities ascertained by the Nas carabinieri, 24 concern the non-compliance with the epidemic containment measures and the safety of the workplace, due to the lack of cleaning and sanitation of the premises, the absence of separate paths for the transport of the bodies and the lack of training of operators about the risk of exposure to biological agents. Most of the irregularities, equal to 68 among those sanctioned overall, were ascertained in the rooms used for the permanence of the bodies and the farewell in the presence of family members, kept in poor hygienic-sanitary and structural conditions, in the presence of detachment of plaster, stains of damp and mold, cracked tiling, old and rusty furniture. In particularly serious situations, coffins were found left for a long time in promiscuous environments awaiting burial or cremation, false certificates of burial of previously exhumed remains, coffins with loss of liquids and the presence of blood stains.
Two were the measures for the closure of activities in respect of a sectoral room inside the mortuary of the cemetery of Cisterna di Latina, due to serious hygienic deficiencies, and of a funeral company in the province of Lecce, which operated under conditions of business incompatibility.
Furthermore, the investigations made it possible to identify the non-fulfillment of the contractual obligations stipulated by agencies and companies affiliated with the Municipalities and hospitals regarding the correct provision of funeral and cemetery services. In this context, two owners of private funeral homes were referred for not complying with the contractual agreements stipulated with the Public Administrations, providing a lower service than the expected specifications.