The CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi has said that the funeral rites of President Rawlings will be a potential spreader of Covid-19.
Former President Jerry John Rawlings, who passed away on Thursday, November 12, 2020 will be buried on Wednesday, January 27.
Leading to that, a 4-day event has been scheduled at 3 separate locations. There will be a mass today at the Holy Spirit Cathedral, after which a vigil will be held at the Airforce Officers Mess.
From Monday, January 25 to Tuesday January 26, his body will be laid in state at the Accra International Conference Centre where state officials, foreign dignitaries, and the general public will be given the opportunity to pay their last respects.
In view of the rising numbers of Covid-19 active cases in the country and considering the large numbers expected at the funeral, Mr Hosi is concerned that the activities lined up for the late president’s funeral should have been conducted virtually.
“Amidst all that’s obvious about our Covid-19 situation, I humbly plead that the State revises the structure of President Rawlings’ Funeral. It is undoubtedly heading for a super spreader Covid-19 event.
“We can have this four-day session virtual as a TV production with physical attendance highly restricted to not more than 100 or 25 attendees,” Mr Hosi’s Facebook post read.
As of January 19, Ghana’s Covid-19 cases stood at 2,799 with 361 deaths in contrast with 991 active cases barely a month ago in December 2020.
The Managing Trustee of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund is concerned about this sharp rise in active cases and does not believe that the late “Rawlings will be pleased that people get infected or lose their lives to Covid-19 courtesy of his funeral”.
According to the CEO “A befitting funeral is not necessarily a big super spreading Covid-19 event!”
He asked for the right thing to be done and this further asked the President, Nana Akufo-Addo to use this “as an opportunity to set the example you need Ghanaians to follow”.
