‘NA LIE’! Mortuary Workers Accuse Govt Of Under Reporting COVID Deaths

The Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana (MOWAG) has questioned statistics on Covid-19 casualties government has been reporting.

The mortuary attendants disclosed that the number of Covid-19 deaths is higher than the statistics the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has been putting out on its website.

Speaking on Akoma FM‘s morning show GhanAkoma, General Secretary of MOWAG, Mr. Richard Kofi Jordan said that the government is massaging the actual figures for whatever reasons best known to them.

He explained that “even the number of people who die in their various houses is more than the deaths”.

“We the mortuary attendants work closely with the doctors and we know the number of people who are brought into the morgue as a result of Covid-19, so we want to tell the public that the Covid-19 is real and so many people are dying contrary to what we have been told.”

He further admonished the public to adhere to the laid down Covid-19 protocols to fight the communal spread of the virus.

As at January 29, 2021, Ghana’s active Covid-19 cases stood at 5,358 with 67,010 confirmed cases and 416 deaths.

Meanwhile, Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Aboagye DaCosta has posited that every Ghanaian, including infants, is at risk of contracting the coronavirus.

According to him, the perception that the virus only affects the old and those with underlying health conditions is false. “Let us understand that the virus can affect all persons”.

“All can get the virus but the people at risk are those with underlying health conditions and the old. It doesn’t mean kids cannot contract the virus; everyone can get infected”, Dr Aboagye DaCosta stated.

The health expert made this known in an interview with Accra based Happy FM and e.TV Ghana.

His comments come on the back of recent news of COVID-19 infections being recorded among infants and newborns at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

With the virus being no respecter of persons, Dr. DaCosta said, “Let’s understand that the virus can affect all. It may seem that I am always repeating myself but I deem it necessary that I should. The nose masks are meant to protect our family, community and the county. Washing your hands is not for your safety alone but for all around you. If we all adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols as a collective, we will be victorious over the virus”.

The Child Health Directorate of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has recorded 25 positive cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Fourteen (14) of the cases with two deaths were recorded in 2020, while nine cases and one death has been recorded this year according to authorities.

Professor Sampson Antwi, Head of the Directorate, briefing the media in Kumasi, said the latest confirmed cases involved an 11-day old baby.

Prof. Antwi stressed that those cases recorded last year had an age range between three months to 14 years.