Goroka Provincial Hospital COVID-19 morgue is now full. There are also limited workers and so families are being allowed to claim their deceased relatives.
The increasing number of deaths in Goroka had filled up the COVID-19 morgue and the hospital is struggling to keep up with the demand.
Meanwhile there is mourning in the villages and town settlements across Eastern Highlands province with funerals being attended by men, women and children. These are deaths caused by the Coronavirus.
It is alarming also to note that while offering sympathy, the gatherings are becoming high-risk areas in which people attending these funeral gatherings, can easily transmit the virus.
George Ekiroso, a community leader who works as a health worker in one of the districts in Eastern Highlands said, “In our opinion as health workers in the district, there are many people both male and female who are dying in the villages but we are bringing them into Goroka provincial hospital to put them inside the container morgue.”
He added, “When we go and get the bodies of the dead, we are concerned that if these people are dying from COVID-19, how many other live people have either come close to the deceased or touched the body. When this happens then transmission takes place and COVID-19 spreads. This way the numbers of those infected and those deceased is going up in the province.”
Between the month of September and October, more than 100 people have passed on due to COVID-19-related complications in Eastern Highlands. According to updates from the Provincial COVID-19 Centre in Goroka, on Monday this week there were 123 who died from this disease. There are many who have come from the villages and rural communities all throughout the eight (8) districts.
Every day more sick people are coming into Goroka Hospital. The dead are also being brought in. By now all the hospital beds in the isolation ward are full and so those who come later, are made to lay on the floor.
By now all sporting activities at the National Sports Institute have been cancelled while the management gave permission to the Easter Highlands Provincial Health Authority to restructure the Indoor Complex to be another isolation centre for COVID-19 patients. It would accommodate those who have no bed at the COVID-19 isolation facility.