Papua New Guinea carried out the first in a series of mass Covid-19 burials, interring 54 people whose remains were unclaimed for months as the pandemic ravaged the under-resourced Melanesian nation.
Hospital and government officials ordered the crisis ceremony after 300 bodies piled up at Port Moresby General Hospital morgue, overwhelming a facility designed to hold just 60, AFP reports.
Some remains had been stored there since March, as authorities tried to locate loved ones and secure scarce funding to carry out the last rites.
The ceremony took place at Nine Mile Cemetery on the outskirts of the capital Port Moresby.
