The Public Health Directorate of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has buried ninety seven persons who succumbed to covid 19 so far, out of the nearly two hundred victims.
At an event to bury six bodies Thursday afternoon, leader of the burial team Inspector Joseph Asitanga told 3news.com’s Komla Adom, there are many more bodies awaiting burial.
He however laments resource constraints continue to demotivate his men as Ghana’s death toll from the infectious disease nears two hundred.
“We have spoken about our challenges so many times and yet it appears those who matter are paying deaf ears to our concerns,’ Mr. Asitanga said.
The environmental health workers who carry out the burials till date still have to sit in the bucket of a pick up while they whizz through city traffic to lead the hearses to the burial site.
This, Mr. Asitanga believes remains a disincentive for the workers.
He added, ‘he may be left helpless if his agitated men continue to be starved of the resources to do their job.’
Apart from the inadequate personal protective equipment (PPEs) that’s been the chorus of many of these frontline workers, a lack of a vehicle to convey the bodies en mass to the Awodome cemetery remains a major headache.
Separate hearses convey each body from the morgue of the various hospitals to the cemetery.
Thursday’s exercise saw some relatives of the deceased in a mild standoff with hospital morgue officials and the AMA workers.
They wanted to be allowed the opportunity to see and mourn their deceased one final time before they are buried.
But health officials say, ‘to protect and prevent them from any possible exposure to the infection, they do not allow the regular traditional activities before the bodies are shut in the caskets.”
“You see, we went through so much hustle and drama at the hands of these relatives – and that’s been the situation a lot of the time. We plead with them to allow us do our work,” Mr. Asitanga told 3news.
In all, three bodies from the Ga East Municipal Hospital, one each from 37 Military Hospital, Police Hospital and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital were buried on Thursday.
By 3news.com|Ghana