Environmental Health Officers Suspend Burial Of Deceased Covid-19 Patients For Lack Of PPEs

The Environmental Health Officers Alliance – Ghana, has suspended its involvement in the burial of COVID-19 patients who died.

The alliance, which is made up of all environmental health officers in all 260 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies in the country, has been complaining about inadequate critical logistics.

Yaw Lartey, the alliance’s president, has in the past noted a lack of computers for data collection, a lack of vehicles, and limited personal protection equipment as some of their major challenges.

In announcing the strike, Mr Lartey urged needy officers nationwide to comply with the alliance’s action.

“All those who are burying and have not got the needed logistics to do the burial, kindly lay down your tools because the new variant is so deadly, and we don’t want things to get out of hand,” he said.

He further urged all the officers to remain calm “as executives engage government on the needed modus operandi in the discharge of our duties on this highly infectious virus in our country, Ghana.”

Meanwhile speaking on Ark in the morning with Kwabena Obeng Akrofi the Royal Servant, the Sunyani West Municipal Environmental Health Officer Mr Andrew Salifu Braima said the SWMA has been helpful to them in going about their activities as they don’t meet many challenges in burying Covid-19 deaths.

He added that they at the Sunyani West Assembly are not on strike they are still burying with the help of the Families of the deceased as families help them in the terms needed for the burial he, therefore, called on the central government to take issues of the environmental health serious and assist them with PPEs since the load on the Assemblies are heavy.

Nana Ama Asiedu, Bone Region