India gets online COVID-19 memorial to commemorate pandemic victims
What's the story
An online portal has been launched to memorialize people who lost their lives due to COVID-19 in India. The portal, called the National COVID Memorial, was established by the Covid Care Network (CCN) for the families of COVID-19 victims to pay their tributes. The CCN is a non-governmental organization led by a team of doctors in Kolkata, West Bengal. Here are more details.
Memorial
Memorial allows people to share victims' photos, stories
The COVID-19 memorial, which was launched on Saturday, will allow family members and friends of those who succumbed to the viral disease to write a blog, and share their stories and photos. Registration can also be done by emailing all the documents to nationalcovidmemorial@gmail.com. Social workers along with doctors, health workers, and journalists will help run the memorial.
Quote
'Memorial will help restore dignity to COVID-19 victims'
Dr. Abhijit Chowdhury of CCN said, "A national COVID memorial is an initiative for Indians to keep alive the memories of their loved ones who succumbed to the disease. This is a place where everybody can join." He added, "This memorial will restore some dignity of the people who died and were cremated without even their families being allowed to attend the funeral."
Context
COVID-19 isolation, lockdown kept people from sharing last moments
During the pandemic, most people were not allowed to grieve family members properly due to health restrictions. The mandatory isolation of COVID-19 patients and the lockdown meant that people couldn't be with their loved ones in their last moments. For funerals, friends and family weren't allowed to touch the dead bodies. Restrictions were also imposed on the number of people attending the last rites.
Inclusivity
'Memorial has to be inclusive'
The Director of The Hindu Group of Publications, N Ram, said that the memorial needs to be inclusive. "The memorial has to be inclusive. We should not be missing anyone," Ram was quoted as saying by BBC. He said that volunteers, NGOs, and journalists would be needed to help collect the tributes of the "poor and the destitute" who lost their lives to COVID-19.
Outbreak
Over 1.54 lakh died of COVID-19 in India
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,54,486 deaths have been reported due to COVID-19 in India. This is the fourth-highest death toll for any country in the world. In the past 24 hours, 94 fresh fatalities were reported. India has reported 1,07,66,245 cases—the second-highest in the world after the United States—out of which, 1,04,48,406 patients have recovered.