A man from Italy said he and his family were quarantined inside his home with the body of his sister, who had died after contracting the novel coronavirus, for more than a day before they could find a funeral home willing to take her body, The Washington Post reports.
According to the Post, which also cited reporting from Al Jazeera, the man, Luca Franzese, made a Facebook video detailing the ordeal and calling for help while the body of his late sister, Teresa Franzese, 47, laid in a bed in the background.
“I have my sister in bed, dead, I don’t know what to do,” he reportedly said in the video, which has racked up more than 9 millions views since he first shared it on Sunday. “I cannot give her the honor she deserves because the institutions have abandoned me. I contacted everyone, but nobody was able to give me an answer.”
He said his sister, who reportedly had epilepsy but was otherwise in good health, had died on Saturday shortly after contracting COVID-19, which has infected thousands of people in Italy and killed over 800 people there so far, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
However, Franzese said it wasn’t until after his sister’s death that officials confirmed she had contracted the disease. After the case was confirmed, he said he and his family were quarantined with his sister’s body for over 36 hours after having trouble finding a funeral home that would collect her.
At one point, Franzese reportedly said officials helped put him in touch with a local funeral home but he added the service turned him away.
After he took to Facebook later on Sunday to call for help again in another video, the Post reported that a funeral home contacted him on Monday to offer their services.
A worker with the service, Aprea Funeral Home, called the experience “surreal” in an interview with Al Jazeera, noting that staff had “used masks, sterile shoes, hazmat suits, glasses, and gloves.”
Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a local councilor, told the network it was “the first case in Italy in which a person with the virus dies at home, so there was some confusion on what to do."
"The family [exemplifies] altruism, they are doing everything they can to protect their community, and the community is staying close to them by bringing food,” Borrelli continued.
“Now the big problem is that they have been closed in there for four days, and no one is taking away their trash. It's getting unhygienic and we don't know what to do about it. Someone needs to help them,” he added.
CNN reported on Wednesday that another woman from Italy, which has seen the worst outbreak of COVID-19 outside of China, experienced a similar ordeal after her husband died from the virus in their apartment on Monday.
Giancarlo Canepa, who serves as mayor of Borghetto Santo Spirito, reportedly told local media at the time that no one was allowed to move the body due to protocol.
“Yes, it is true she is still there with the body and we won’t be able to remove it until Wednesday morning,” Canepa said then, adding: “Unfortunately, we have a security protocol we must follow.”
