In Shibganj upazila of Bogura, Bangladesh, a man recently died with cold, cough and fever, symptoms of the coronavirus, and his burial sparked a major controversy.

Local officials eventually managed to bury him on government land, but residents' fears have not gone away.

The dispute began on Saturday night when residents objected as the man was being buried. They claimed the virus could spread from the body.

Yet whether the man had the coronavirus is still being tested by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). Even so, the burial was carried out following the rules for preventing the spread of infectious disease.

The health department has reportedly already collected samples from the man and sent them to IEDCR.

Earlier, burials of people who died of the coronavirus caused complications in Dhaka's Khilgaon area.

When the body of a man who had died of the coronavirus was taken for burial at the Khilgaon graveyard, residents protested and the body was buried at another graveyard.

Their fear was the same. They said that because they walk through the graveyard, burying someone who had died of the coronavirus there could spread the virus among them.

IEDCR, Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, says it follows the World Health Organization's protocol for handling the bodies of people who die of the coronavirus.

The WHO does not mention any possible risk in burying the body of a person infected with the coronavirus, and experts also see no risk in carrying out last rites for such patients according to religious rules.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.