Mexico City officials say prosecutors are investigating several doctors who allegedly issued false death certificates for people who may have died of the coronavirus
June 5, 2020, 11:20 PM
2 min read
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City officials said Friday that prosecutors are investigating several doctors who allegedly issued false death certificates for people who may have died of the coronavirus.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum alleged the doctors “were involved in charging for these services,” which are supposed to be free but can sometimes be lengthy and bureaucratic.
“They sold these certificates when they should not have,” Sheinbaum said.
The scheme purportedly involved at least one city government employee and around 10 doctors, none of whom were city hospital employees, the mayor said.
There are also indications the doctors may have signed off causes of death other than COVID-19 for bodies they had never seen or examined, though the reasons were unclear, officials said.
But bodies had been piling up at hospitals in Mexico City as the pandemic worsened, and some relatives may have simply wanted to get their deceased family members released more quickly. In addition, bodies of people who died from COVID-19 have to be cremated or buried under stricter rules so some families may have paid for a false certificate to avoid that or the social stigma the virus carries.
No charges have been filed in the case.
It would not be the first scandal in Mexico involving businesses that have grown up around the pandemic.
In May, authorities found 3.5 tons of hospital waste illegally dumped in the woods on the outskirts of Mexico City. Officials also discovered 6,000 cubic yards (meters) of medical waste piled ceiling high at a warehouse in Puebla state.
Teetering piles of discarded coffins, meanwhile, have piled up outside Mexico City’s overworked crematoriums. Specialized waste incinerators are over-taxed by the flood of disposed protective equipment and infectious tissue being generated amid the pandemic.
Mexico is plagued by widespread problems with unregulated firms in both the waste disposal and funeral industries. According to the Senate, 60% of funeral agencies in Mexico are either unregistered or not fully registered.
