The Public Relations Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has reiterated the need for families who have bodies of their relatives in the hospital’s mortuary to claim them.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on Friday, April, 24 threatened to bury unknown and unclaimed bodies in its mortuary within two weeks en masse.
The ban on public gatherings including funerals has led to many people deferring burial dates of their loved ones although there is an exemption granted to those who wish to hold private buries with 25 or fewer people in attendance.
Some families say they would rather wait until the COVID-19-induced ban is lifted for them to organize public funeral services and burial with hundreds of people in attendance.
The PRO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mustapha Salifu in a Citi News interview said bodies can be moved to funeral homes.
He said after the two weeks grace period “we will assume that they [bodies] don’t have any relations that’s why no one is coming forward to make a claim on the bodies”.
“So far from the Ghana Health Service, we have less than 20 deaths from COVID-19 and not all of them died here at Korle Bu. Some are at other hospitals and they will not be brought here because they equally have morgues to keep the bodies. We just want to reiterate the appeal that, it is important for people to come for their deceased relatives, pay their last respects to them, and have them buried decently. If they don’t show up for them, it means the bodies will be treated as unclaimed bodies so we will go ahead and bury them on behalf of their families. Others also have the liberty to move their bodies to other funeral homes,” he added.
We’ll bury unclaimed, unidentified bodies in two weeks – Korle Bu Hospital
While threatening to organize a mass burial for unclaimed bodies after two weeks, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said the move was to help “decongest the Hospital’s mortuary which is currently full beyond its carrying capacity.”
The Hospital thus urged families who have the bodies of their relatives at the hospital’s morgue to come for them.
Source: citinewsroom
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