The family of a 49-year-old woman who died at the Ridge Hospital in Accra has accused the management of the facility of negligence after relatives were allowed access to the body of the deceased despite her COVID-19 status.

According to the family of the late Adiza Mohammed, authorities at Ridge allowed them to take hold of the body and bathe it when she died without any knowledge of her COVID status. They told GHOne TV’s Fritz Delanyo Amegashie Friday that the hospital allowed them to feed and touch her when she was on admission before her death.

The deceased, mother of four, was admitted at the Ridge hospital on Friday, February 19, 2021, but died on Sunday, February 21. The family was however told of her COVID status after they were given cause of death by the hospital.

Family members who are challenging the causee of death of their relative say the hospital also failed to alert the COVID-19 taskforce to embark on contract tracing since no one in the family has been checked upon or tested for possible contraction of the virus from their late kinsman.

When contacted over the development, the authorities at Ridge denied the claims but said they will be investigated.

President Akufo-Addo will receive the first dose of the initial consignment of COVID-19 vaccines which arrived in the country on Wednesday.

“President Akufo-Addo will be the first to be vaccinated,” Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Presidential advisor on health, disclosed.

According to Dr Nsiah-Asare, the move to have the President take the first jab of the vaccines “is to assure Ghanaians that the vaccines are safe and any other reactions like headache, dizziness, or pains are all usual with every vaccination,” he said.

With Ghana recording, more than 80,000 cases and over 580 deaths on account of the virus, the Presidential Advisor on health noted that it would be in the interest of the country, for Ghanaians to avail themselves to be vaccinated when that opportunity came.

“We encourage everyone to avail him or herself of the opportunity to be vaccinated. It is safe and we want other Ghanaians abroad to also put out their videos to encourage others in Ghana”.

Ghana received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines through a UN-backed global vaccine-sharing scheme as part of efforts to enable equitable access to the jabs by low and middle-income countries.