Give us PPE before we return to work – Environmental health officers to government

The pressure on mortuaries across the country appears to be increasing as Environmental health officers remain on strike.

The officers, who are responsible for burying persons who die from COVID-19 insist they have not been given the requisite tools to work with.

Health Officials in the Eastern Region have already complained about the impact of the strike as morgues in the region are said to be running out of space to accommodate any more COVID-19 corpses.

But the National President of the Alliance, Yaw Acquah Lartey, in a Citi News interview said that government is yet to even engage them on their concerns.

He added that until the government provides the needed PPE they won’t return to work.

“We have laid down our tools since Wednesday simply because we are not getting the necessary protective equipment to wear to be able to give the safe disposal of the dead bodies.”

“So until the government supplies the needed PPE as enshrined in the Labour Act 2003, we are not going back to work.”

The Environmental Health Officers Alliance – Ghana, suspended its involvement in the burial of COVID-19 patients who died on August 20, 2021.

The alliance, which is made up of all environmental health officers in all 260 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies in the country, has been complaining about inadequate critical logistics.

Source: Ernest Arhinfu