COVID-19: From the morgue to the cemetery; Families no longer spend on funerals

– The funeral or death sector is not happy with the outcome of the coronavirus pandemic

– They say the ban on funerals, with less than 30 people allowed to attend the funeral, hit them hard

– They said bereaved families spend less on funerals as they now practice mortuary at the cemetery

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The coronavirus pandemic comes with its own rules that we are meant to live by.

Unfortunately for us, these restrictions have a great impact on our very existence and our life cycle, from childbirth to death and final funeral rights.

Not only have these restrictions impacted our lives, but also our activities.

In 2020, when restrictions were announced by President Akufo-Addo to curb the spread of the virus, it led most people to lose their source of income and others to almost bankruptcy.

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A reduction in the number of social gatherings has caused most of the events and industry players to have a declining revenue stream.

COVID-19: From the morgue to the cemetery; families stop spending on funerals – Funeral service providers
Source: UGC

The funeral or death industry is one of those industries that is not happy with the outcome of the coronavirus pandemic.

With restrictions on funerals to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, most business owners in this industry are complaining of weak patronage.

Most of these people have closed their stores because business is not going as well as it was before the covid.

They said the ban on funerals, with fewer than 30 people allowed to attend the funeral, was hitting hard and “frustrating”.

A funeral supplies dealer, Madame Dorcas Antwi, in a report filed by Ghanaweb.com said the sector was “slowly dying”.

According to her, the corpses were no longer left undisturbed and bereaved families spent less on funerals.

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She added that people were no longer willing to honor the dead with big funerals because of the pandemic.

Dorcas Antwi said it was becoming disastrous with many families now practicing “from the morgue to the cemetery”.

She said there was an increase in demand for flowers and tomb clothing for those who died when restrictions were relaxed, but not anymore.

At Gillman and Abbey Funeral Service Limited in Accra, John Coffie, the Managing Director, said: “Funerals are now being held privately rather than the traditional way …”

He said that due to the restrictions, some customers were buying cheaper caskets because there would be no funeral.

Atta Kwaku John, an Undertaker, based at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, said COVID-19 and the restrictions were gradually throwing them out of work.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has killed seven other people in Ghana.

This brings the country’s death toll to 440. Since the start of this year, the country has seen an astronomical increase in the number of active cases.

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Active cases stood at 6,086 at the time of filing this report, after the registration of 697 new cases, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website.

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