From today, Wednesday, August 18, families of COVID-19 infected dead persons will have to bury their relatives themselves because those in charge and mandated to do so are on strike.
The Environmental Health Officers Alliance Ghana (EHOAG) has suspended the burial of all Covid-19 victims in the country as its leadership laments government has refused to provide the members with the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and logistics to carry out their duties.
The National President for EHOAG, Yaw Akwaa Lartey, who doubles as the acting District Environmental Health Officer for Denkyembour District in the Eastern Region, speaking on Akoma FM‘s current affairs and political show GhanAkoma Wednesday, August 18, revealed that “since the invasion of Covid-19 in Ghana, we the environmental health officers who are in charge of burying Covid-19 dead bodies have been buying nose masks, gloves and other basic safety gears ourselves”
“Government doesn’t provide us, the frontliners, the basic wears that will ensure our work is safe from infections.”
The EHOAG National President further added that “government is only interested in providing the necessary logistics for Ministry of Health, that is nurses and doctors, neglecting us to the mercy of possible Covid-19 infections from the dead bodies we bury, hence we have laid down our tools, we won’t risk our lives anymore”.
Mr. Lartey further told the host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin that “most times when the dead bodies of Covid-19 victims are dumped on us to bury, we don’t even get hearse to convey the bodies to the cemetery. We are always forced to hire long KIA vehicles or tricycles, a situation that poses health threats to the public”.
Under the Health Profession Regulatory Act 2013, there are eighteen bodies regulated by the Allied Health Professional Council, which falls under the Ministry of Health but it seems Environmental Health Officers are left out.
This has triggered their industrial strike to drive home their demands.
