COVID-19 Burial Team threaten strike for lack of resources

All may not be well with the structures being put in place to effectively fight the pandemic

The Thunder sources at the MOH say members of the COVID-19 burial team are threatening to go on strike if measures that are being put in place are not resilient enough.

They are, therefore “once again” calling on the government to ensure that resources such as vehicles are provided to help them transport bodies to the infectious cemetery for burial.

With Ghana’s COVID-19 death toll hitting almost 600, the group, which since last year has been lamenting inadequate resources to work effectively, says its members are getting overwhelmed by the number of persons to be buried.

The Director of the Public Health Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Florence Kuukyi, has appealed to the government to give some attention to the burial team.

“Sometimes, we have to even have to fall on the assembly revenue car which is very bad. So we are still pleading with the government and other philanthropists,” she complained.

“Even if we can get one single cabin pickup, it will go a long way to help us in carrying out our duties,” Mrs. Kuukyi added.

She also lamented the stigmatization the team faces which she says makes their work difficult.

“Everybody is shunning our company. When we even go for burials, and we come back to the yard, immediately the car enters the yard, people start running away from us,” Mrs. Kuuyi complained.

Some members of the National COVID-19 Burial Team have also in the past complained about not receiving relief packages from the government that was due to all frontline health workers.

Some members of the team in the Cape Coast Metropolis threatened to strike if they did not receive benefits due to them as frontline health workers.

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