Covid-19 corpse ‘missing’ at E/R Hospital

A corpse infected with COVID-19 has gone missing from a mortuary at the New Juaben South Municipality.

Environmental officers from the assembly were shocked when they arrived at the morgue to pick up the corpse for burial as protocol demanded.

They went to the mortuary on Sunday, March 14, 2021, to supervise the burial of Janet Nyarkoa who reportedly died of COVID-19.

But to their surprise, the body had been taken away by the bereaved family in connivance with the mortuary workers.

Accra-based Starr FM reports that the family took the body to SDA Church for burial service.

The Environmental officers after an unsuccessful search of the whereabouts of the corpse rushed to lock the public cemetery in Koforidua to block the family from going ahead to bury the corpse after breaching COVID-19 burial protocols.

The situation created chaos when the family finally arrived with the body in a speeding hearse.

The Environmental officers, led by Emmanuel Tetteh blocked, the family from burying the corpse and instead directed that they go to the Police station to lodge a formal complaint about the incident.

“I had to prevent them because I don’t know where they took the body. The body was released at the morgue so we have to find out from the morgue who released the body to the family members without an officer. I should have been there before the body was released to the family. I should have been present.

“So who gave the body to the family. I will be happy if you do that investigation. Because when I got there to supervise the burial, the body was not there so I rather had to stop them at the cemetery so we reported at the Police Station,” Emmanuel Tetteh told Starr News.

He berated workers of the Eastern Regional Hospital for releasing a COVID-19 body to the family, disregarding protocols for the burial of such persons.

“The body shouldn’t have been released. Because it is a COVID-19 case the body shouldn’t have been released to the family at the morgue because they know the protocol. So we need to find out who released the body to the family at the morgue”.

The Eastern Regional Hospital is, however, yet to respond to the allegations.

Similarly, the acting Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Police Command, Sergeant Francis Gomado, told Starr FM on Monday that he has not been briefed about the incident

Meanwhile, the corpse has been buried.