The emergence of a novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans, is affecting all countries of the world and has become a global health concern. Since the virus was first identified in December 2019, the number of deaths have been propagating exponentially, causing countries across the world, including Malaysia, to increase emergency measures to combat the virus. Due to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic does not discriminate its victims, it is of paramount importance to construct a plan for management of the dead for all suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, including the unidentified deceased, as an essential portion of the humanitarian forensic action approach. This document provides an overview on ways to maximize the local collective capacity from various government agencies to manage the dead based on the prevailing regulations and legislation in the country, in preparation for possible large scale deaths from this pandemic. The National Institute of Forensic Medicine Malaysia has improvised procedures and guidelines for management of the dead within the existing regulations in order to achieve a balance between medicolegal requirements and the safety of personnel managing the bodies of the deceased with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection; at the site of death, during transport, during postmortem procedures, storage and preparation before and during burial or cremation as well as environmental cleaning and disinfection, involving various agencies in the country. A form of temporary controlled burial is as an option to allow the reinvestigation of a decedent to help formally identify victims of the pandemic such as undocumented migrants or refugees who were previously not identified. Due to the different legal requirements and mortality rates between countries, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the management of the dead. Whenever possible, every opportunity and assistance must be given to families to mourn their loved ones, even in times of crisis or an outbreak, in order to sustain an appropriate level of dignity and respect. Keywords COVID-19. Management of the dead. Humanitarian forensic action. Pandemic Background A cluster of 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology was reported by the Chinese health authorities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China on 31st December 2019, and subsequently the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a novel coronavirus as the causative agent of this outbreak on 9th January 2020 [1, 2]. The virus is phylogenetically in the SARS-CoV clade and is called 'Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2' (SARS-CoV-2). The disease associated with the virus is referred to as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pathobiology of COVID-19 remains incompletely understood and significant efforts are underway to study it worldwide [3]. Current understanding about how the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads is largely based on what is known about similar coronaviruses. Together with Severe Acute Resp...

During a disease pandemic, there is still a requirement to perform postmortem examinations within the context of legal considerations. The management of the dead from COVID-19 should not impede the medicolegal investigation of the death where required by the authorities and legislation but additional health and safety precautions should be adopted for the necessary postmortem procedures. The authors have therefore used the craniotomy box in an innovative way to enable a safe alternative for skull and brain removal procedures on suspected or confirmed COVID-19 bodies. The craniotomy box technique was tested on a confirmed COVID-19 positive body where a full postmortem examination was performed by a team of highly trained personnel in a negative pressure Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) autopsy suite in the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (IPFN) Malaysia. This craniotomy box is a custom-made transparent plastic box with five walls but without a floor. Two circular holes were made in one wall for the placement of arms in order to perform the skull opening procedure. A swab to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was taken from the interior surface of the craniotomy box after the procedure. The result from the test using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) proved that an additional barrier provided respiratory protection by containing the aerosols generated from the skull opening procedure. This innovation ensures procedures performed inside this craniotomy box are safe for postmortem personnel performing high risk autopsies during pandemics.

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In the context of mass fatality incident, it is of utmost importance to identify the victims rapidly and accurately, both for judicial reasons and to provide closure for family members. Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) work is an interdisciplinary manner, engaging the services of experts in various disciplines, comprising of pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists, radiologists, fingerprint and DNA experts to work collaboratively towards the identification of victims. The DVI process is conducted by adopting the fundamental principle where the highest possible quality standards should be applied and victims are to be treated with dignity and respect, in accordance to the internationally recognised INTERPOL DVI guide. The primary identifiers are the most reliable means of identification. They are fingerprint analysis, comparative dental analysis and DNA analysis. Secondary means of identification include personal description, medical findings and medical records as well as evidence and clothing found on the body. Most often than not, secondary identifiers are often used to complement the primary identifiers. However, there is always an exception. This paper highlights a case of the Dauphin helicopter crash in which identifications for all the victims were done using only secondary means of identification. Having said that, victims' bodies were released to family members without awaiting the DNA result. 24 hours later, the DNA analysis results were matched and confirmed the identity of the victims to be correct.