Coronavirus: Govt should expand the capacity of mortuaries – Edward Akpakudi

The Chairman of Mortuary Workers Association, Edward Mensah Akpakudi has called for the expansion of all mortuaries within the country to contain persons who may, unfortunately, die from the deadly and infectious coronavirus disease.

According to Mr. Akpakudi in an interview with UTV, the mortuaries need to be expanded as the capacity of the biggest mortuary in the country is nothing to write home about.

“The biggest mortuary has a capacity of 500 so it should be expanded else if the situation gets out of hand, there will be no place to keep dead bodies,” he said.

He added that it is important for mortuary workers to know if the bodies they are attending to are victims of coronavirus so they can take the necessary precautions and separate them from other bodies.

“The truth is, we do not usually know the cause of death of most bodies until their post mortem is done, so we need protection to do our work. They should let us know a dead body is a COVID-19 body. It’s extremely important because, in some mortuaries, they keep more than one body at a place,” he stated.

Mr. Akpakudi also advised health professionals to ensure that spots, where the dead bodies are kept before they are being sent to the mortuary, are disinfected.

“The places where the dead bodies are lifted from should be sprayed very well to prevent the further spread of the virus,” he concluded.

Ghana has so far recorded 5 coronavirus deaths.