We won’t bury any COVID-19 body until we’re given PPE – Environmental Health Officers

The Environment Health Officials at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly have said they will not bury any dead COVID-19 person until they are given Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

So far, all six persons who died from coronavirus in Accra have all been left in various mortuaries awaiting burial.

The Director of Public Health for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Florence Kuukyi, told Starr FM she will not risk the lives of her staff when they had not been trained nor provided with PPE.

“No provision has been made for us to undertake such burial hence, these bodies are still lying in the mortuaries… We don’t even have the PPE to use to bury these bodies, nor do we have the chemicals to use to disinfect the bodies before they’re buried.

“All these were in the plans we prepared, and this plan has been going through and fro. We don’t know who to go or where to go… When this outbreak came, they have trained the doctors and the nurses on how to handle these bodies. But the Environmental health officer who is supposed to handle these dead bodies have not been trained. They’ve not given us any PPE. Our PPEs are different from what they use at the ward. I’m not ready to put any of my staff’s health on the line,” she said.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline on the handling the body of persons who die from coronavirus, the remains must be wrapped in cloth and transferred as soon as possible to the mortuary area.

The world’s health regulator said, “there is no need to disinfect the body before
transfer to the mortuary area”.

It added that “body bags are not necessary, although they may be used for other reasons (e.g. excessive body fluid leakage) and no special transport equipment or vehicle is required.

Ghana’s COVID-19 situation

A total of 641 persons have contracted the coronavirus in Ghana. Out of this figure, 83 have fully recovered.

Eight others have also died as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus in Ghana.

Parts of the country including Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region are in their third week of observing a partial lockdown announced by President Akufo-Addo.