Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the presidential advisor on health, has given details on surveillance efforts by the Ghana Health Service relative to the funeral of Sir John, the former General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP.
According to Nsiah Asare, the GHS surveillance team had put a strong mechanism especially at Sakora Wunoo, which monitored all persons who attended the funeral.
GhanaWeb monitored comments he made on Sunday (July 11) evening when he appeared on ‘The Probe’ programme which aired on Joy News channel.
He stressed that from the team’s monitoring, there was no surge or outbreak of unusual COVID-like symptoms in Sakora Wunoo or for any persons who are known to have attended the funeral.
“They tried to find out if there will be any surge or any outbreak of unusual call for any COVID-like symptoms in the municipality or in the vicinity of Sakora Wonoo, God being so good, they looked for about four weeks and there was nothing like that.
“There has not been report of anybody who went for the funeral who has tested positive, because if anybody tests positive, we know where the person is coming from, so they were followed for about four weeks, even they did more than four weeks, about four to six weeks,” he added.
Nsiah Asare added that family members of the late Sir John were particularly monitored by the team especially because most people who came to the funeral went to commiserate with them.
The funeral in early June attracted a lot of publish backlash as thounands of mourners gathered in the small town in the Ashanti region to see off the former ruling party scribe and then CEO of Forestry Commission.
The Ghana Medical Association and other civil society groups berated government for allowing such a gathering at a time that COVID-19 restrictions were supposed to be in force. The GMA described the event as a potential super spreader of the virus.
The president and his vice as well as the Chief Justice and other high profile dignitaries were present at the event.
