Erwin Renaldi and Hellena Souisa – Nadi bin Eji has worked in an east Jakarta cemetery since 1997, and has seen a thing or two. But what he has been dealing with since COVID-19 hit is something else. "Last week we buried 201 people with COVID protocols," he told the ABC.
Prior to the pandemic, Mr bin Eji and the other gravediggers only buried around 70 to 80 corpses in a week. "Of course it's sad to see so many people have died in one day, but at the moment I'm worried about my own health and immunity," he said.
Pondok Raggon cemetery, where Mr bin Eji works, is one of two in the Indonesian capital where those confirmed or suspected to have died from COVID-19 are buried.
Indonesia's COVID-19 response
Six months on from Indonesia's first COVID-19 case, experts say the country is still experiencing its first wave and is yet to see a peak in the outbreak.
Over the past couple of weeks, Mr bin Eji said he had worked on burials from 7:00am until almost midnight. "Even when we had a lunch break, a family came to bury their family members and we had to do it straight away," he said.
Mr bin Eji said he felt "uncomfortable and worried" his neighbours would think he could spread coronavirus to the wider community.
Stigma around those who contract COVID-19 has been identified as a barrier to Indonesia's fight to prevent, detect and treat cases of the virus.
A recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of Indonesia found more than half of respondents had been the subject of "gossip" after getting sick.
Running out of space for the dead?
Jakarta remains the epicentre of Indonesia's COVID-19 outbreak with 11,030 active cases and 1,015 new infections reported on Tuesday.
Authorities have reported an official total of 1,330 deaths in the capital out of 8,230 deaths nationwide. The South-East Asian country this week surpassed 200,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
But testing in Indonesia remains low compared to other countries, and the true numbers of infected and deceased are estimated to be significantly higher.
Mr bin Eji said more than 2,600 burials have taken place in eight new plots at Pondok Ranggon cemetery since the beginning of pandemic.
Although Mr bin Eji refused to reveal the exact number of remaining plots, he told a local media outlet there were only around 1,000 empty graves left.
"The situation could be critical in October, but it really depends on how many people die," Mr bin Eji told the ABC.
Cemeteries in other parts of Indonesia have also been reportedly running out of burial spaces, including in West Java and Surabaya, the capital city of East Java.
The Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, has denied reports the city is running out of burial plots. Mr Baswedan said the Government had provided alternative plots outside of the two assigned public cemeteries.
"[We] have prepared several alternative places since March, not just recently," he told reporters.
The Jakarta Department of Parks and Forestry did not respond to the ABC's request for comment.
Mr bin Eji said he hopes Jakarta's Government chooses the location of the new plots carefully, so as to avoid angering residents. "Residents in other places have refused to allow the burial of COVID-19 patients in their neighbourhood," he said.
Sprayed with disinfectant, wrapped in plastic
The pandemic has caused problems for some families burying their dead in Indonesia, where religion and customs around death are deeply ingrained.
Cremation is forbidden in Islam and many Indonesian Muslims choose to bury the dead wrapped in cloth, rather than in a coffin. The COVID-19 protocols dictate all corpses must be buried in coffins, however.
In some parts of the country, this has led some families to launch daring raids against hospitals to seize the bodies of deceased loved ones, causing headaches for medical workers.
More than 100 doctors have died from the virus since the Indonesian Government announced its first case of COVID-19 six months ago. One of them was Bambang Sutrisna – a Jakarta resident who died in late March.
"We had the result of the test a week after his burial and it turned out he was positive for COVID," his daughter Leonita Triwachyuni, who is also a doctor, told the ABC.
Dr Triwachyuni said COVID-19 protocols were observed for the Christian burial of her father, despite his initial status as a "suspected case".
"After getting dressed, his body was sprayed with disinfectant then put it in a water-resistant body bag, sealed it, then they put it in a coffin," she said. "The coffin was then sprayed again with disinfectant and finally wrapped in plastic."
In line with COVID-19 burial protocols, only Dr Sutrisna's direct family members were allowed to attend. "We were not allowed to be close or touch the coffin... there was no Christian funeral service, we just prayed by our own."
– Additional reporting by Max Walden