The rapid response teams will consist of a driver-firefighter, a paramedic and two police officers. Special teams have been deployed in the UK to remove coronavirus victims who have died at home. A small mobile team consisting of a driver, a medic and two police officers will register the death, determine the identity of the deceased and evacuate the body to the morgue. Interdepartmental Pandemic Rapid Response Teams (PMART), as they are officially called, are dispatched when a person dies outside the hospital walls and there is a strong suspicion that they died from Covid-19.
“Hospital as a gateway to the afterlife”: Doctors on coronavirus in Iran. The first such teams were established in London to facilitate the work of hospitals experiencing a high influx of coronavirus patients. The fact of death will be registered by a representative of the health system, be it a nurse, a medical student or a professional doctor. However, the medical certificate is issued only after the body has been examined by a second doctor.
“The teams are made up of police officers, paramedics and firefighters, and their role is to document the fact of the death, establish the identity of the deceased and check for any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death,” a representative for the London Strategy Coordination Group told Sky News. “They will then prepare the body appropriately for transport to the mortuary or funeral home where further decisions will be made regarding burial or cremation.”
Coronavirus in Italy: Hospitals and crematoria at the limit. The brigades will be provided with unmarked minivans and will be responsible for the airtight packaging of bodies. Officials say up to a third of all coronavirus deaths in the capital may have occurred at home. The number of people infected with the coronavirus in the UK as of Wednesday morning stands at 25,150, with 1,789 patients having died.