On the back of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s ban on social gatherings including funerals, members of the Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana have called on families to help it decongest their morgues by taking advantage of the new directive to organize private burials for their loved ones.

This, they say, will greatly help in creating more space to receive new bodies that will be brought to their facilities within the period.

Speaking with Citi News, the General Secretary of the Association, Richard Kofi Jordan, indicated that if families fail to utilize the opportunity for private burials, they will also be forced to start rejecting fresh bodies.

“The COVID-19 deaths together with deaths from other diseases are all put together. So what has happened is that once the president issued the ban on funerals, people have started cancelling their funerals as well waiting that one day and somehow, the president will lift it for them to have an elaborate funeral.

“So, we suggest they can have the burial service and maybe later do the funeral otherwise anytime soon, we will have to be sending families away indicating that the mortuaries cannot collect more dead bodies.”

President Akufo-Addo had indicated that, “Until further notice, funerals, weddings, concerts, theatrical performances and parties are banned. Private burials with not more than 25 people can take place with the enforcement of the social distancing, hygiene and mask-wearing protocols. Beaches, nightclubs, cinemas, and pubs continue to be shut. Our borders by land and sea remain closed. All workplaces, public and private must implore a shift system for workers in addition to the use of virtual platforms for business or work.”