Lagos — The Lagos State government on Tuesday shut down indefinitely the mortuary at Isolo General Hospital to avoid an epidemic.

The mortuary has been a source of concern to residents of the area as a result of smell emanating from it, Daily Trust gathered.

The state's Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, had on Monday called on members of the public, whose relatives corpses are in the morgue to remove them for the closure to take effect.

He advised people that require mortuary services to transfer the bodies to Gbagada General Hospital mortuary, the mortuary at the General Hospital at Lagos Island, the mortuary at the Lagos State University of Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Ikorodu General Hospital or Epe General Hospital, all of which he said remain open to members of the public.

Dr. Idris said the recently renovated mortuary at Mainland General Hospital, Ebute-Metta, has now been designated as a social responsibility centre and would henceforth receive and accommodate only some categories of bodies.

"The Mainland General Hospital mortuary will receive and accommodate only the following categories of bodies: bodies in respect of which a coroner has directed an autopsy to be conducted pursuant to the Coroner's System Law, 2007, such as bodies found on state roads or highways or picked up by the Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU), bodies of individuals who died while in custody or shortly thereafter and bodies which have been abandoned in other state mortuaries," he said.