Family of dead Covid-19 patient reject test result, refuse to go into self-quarantine

Family of a 19-year-old man who died after testing positive for Coronavirus in Walewale in the North East Region has rejected the test result conducted by the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research. 

Describing the test results as “fake” the family has, therefore, refused to cooperate with contact tracing efforts by health authorities in the region.  

Majority of them have also refused to go into self quarantine as advised by the authorities.

The family is also asking management of the Walewale Hospital to step down for poor handling of the case. 

According to health officials, the infected person, who has no travel history, died four hours after being admitted at the hospital.  

Doctors later suspected coronavirus and decided to detain the body for testing.

But due to no functional morgue at the hospital, the hospital management was forced to release the body to the family for burial while awaiting the test results. 

On Friday, two days after the burial, the test result was announced as positive by Aremeyaw Somo Lucky, the Municipal Chief Executive, after he chaired a meeting with the family.

The family members have, however, said they suspect a cover-up plot by the management of the Walewale hospital. 

“From the beginning until our relation died, we have not been told the truth in it,” spokesman of the family, Ibrahim Alhassan told JoyNews, Saturday.

He added, “We are not saying the disease doesn’t exist but our son did not die with that virus.

“He is an asthmatic patient…it’s purely political and there something behind it.”

Contrary to the hospital claims that the patient died four hours after admission, the family said the hospital staff refused to admit him adding he was never admitted at the facility. 

He said that, “when the corpse was taken to the hospital, they were being denied, that they shouldn’t enter.

“The guy was even crying for oxygen but the nurses denied him and after he died they are now going to take the sample. 

“You didn’t have hands to treat him so which hands did they use to take sample’, the family spokesman quizzed. 

The drama surrounding the incident has prompted widespread doubt among the residents with many disregarding calls for enhanced measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Health officials who visited the family house after the announcement Friday morning to conduct contact tracing, were antagonised by the relatives who refused to allow their samples to be taken for testing. 

Many potential contacts who spoke to our correspondent said they will not allow their samples to be taken because they do not believe their relative died of Covid-19. 

Following the unfolding developments, the North East Regional Security Council is currently holding an emergency meeting with the regional health directorate to map out strategies to deal with the situation.