There was confusion at the Osun State University Teaching Hospital in Osogbo at the weekend as relations of patients who died of COVID-19 wanted to forcefully retrieve their corpses.
Two persons lost their lives in the hospital to COVID-19 and their grieving relations said they wanted to have the corpses for burial.
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The management of the hospital made frantic efforts to explain to the family members that the corpses would be buried by the officials of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and the state COVID-19 team but this did not go down well with the relatives of the deceased.
Eyewitnesses said the relatives of the deceased disrupted the normal flow of activities at the hospital as they turned deaf hear to all explanations, insisting that they must go home with the corpses.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Prof. Peter Olaitan, confirmed the incident to Daily Trust, saying the relatives of the deceased didn’t believe that they died of COVID-19.
According to Prof. Olaitan, “Two patients died of COVID-19 in the hospital and the relations felt the diagnosis was not correct and started making trouble that they would like to bury their dead relations.”
“Normally, COVID-19 corpses are buried by the COVID-19 team to avoid infection of other members of the public. We later resolved the matter,” the CMD explained.