The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has alerted that in two weeks, it will organise mass burial procedures for all unclaimed bodies that are overflowing its morgue.
The Hospital served this notice in a statement that complained that it had been forced to “decongest the Hospital’s mortuary which is currently full beyond its carrying capacity.”
Some of the bodies, according to the Hospital have been in the morgue “for varying periods ranging from one to three years”, a situation it says has contributed to the “exhaustion of the morgue’s capacity.”
A few weeks ago, the Ghana Police Hospital served a similar notice.
It is not clear exactly why dead bodies are piling up at the country’s hospitals. Some critics think it may be related to the ban on public gathering that has prevented relatives from organising funerals for their dead.
The high human-to-human infection mode of the dreaded Covid-19 coronavirus had forced the government to place an indefinite ban on public gatherings and events such as funerals, a flambouyant affair in Ghana.
Some families have reportedly said they would rather wait until The COVID-19-induced ban is lifted before the claim their dead relatives for funerals. This has consequently caused traffic at the morgue.
In March 2020, the announced it was going to bury some 120 bodies en mass due to the failure of some families to come and collect them.