Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands revealed on Wednesday that the government may bury the bodies of hurricane victims who were not identified.

“Once it’s agreed and the public consultative process has been completed then based on international best standards, the plan would be to place in respectful way, the remains in a burial site where they can be retrieved if the identification process takes place subsequent to burial,” Dr. Sands said. 

He also revealed that autopsies have been completed for Hurricane Dorian victims and 46 bodies have been released to families. 

However, the ministry is having trouble identifying the majority of bodies from Abaco. 

Dr. Sands said it is possible that a public announcement is needed to inform family members to come forward and identify their loved ones. 

“What we’d like to do is make aware of the approach to identification, as we have refined the missing persons list then it assumed that perhaps the some of the people may be among the dead,” he explained. 

“Then what we would like to be able to do is to say, ‘This is the process to provide information.  Where was the persons last? What were they wearing?  Do they have any identifying characteristics?’

“We’re then able to compare it in the database.  Then we could get tissue samples or DNA samples from an enquiring family member to see whether we got the remains.”