Liberia eases up on cremation order for Ebola victims
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ebola health care workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus in a small village Gbah on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)
Liberia's government is easing up on its order that all Ebola victims' bodies be cremated after authorities purchased a plot of land to bury them.
Ciatta Bishop, head of the national Ebola burial team, said Tuesday that the government has secured a 25-acre parcel of land where Ebola victims can now be buried.
The Liberian government ordered that victims be cremated at the height of the crisis because corpses are highly contagious.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Many of those who washed or touched bodies before their burials contracted Ebola.
The cremation decree is highly unpopular in Liberia, where funeral traditions are carefully followed and are considered a sacred obligation to the deceased.
More than 2,000 corpses of suspected Ebola victims have been cremated so far.