Producers and sellers of coffins have outlined what they term as low sales of their coffins with Government restrictions on funerals.
Whiles some coffin makers in the sector have shutdown their shop, others are hoping the ban on funerals by Government be lifted soon for a quick revival of the once-booming industry they said.
Coffin makers don’t seem to be the only group of persons affected by the government directive that a funeral should not have more than 25 persons in attendance.
Some caterers have also said a ban on mass funeral automatically means bereaved families will limit the patronage of some food services since only 25 persons are currently allowed to be present at a funeral.
In a report filed by GNA cited by Awake News, one Miss Dorcas Antwi, 24, a Dealer in funeral supplies, told the GNA the sector was “dying slowly.” as a result of the ban and restrictions on funerals the directive of President Akufo Addo.
She said because dead bodies were no longer being laid in state, bereaved families were spending less for burials, with some, unwilling to honour the dead because of the pandemic and the ultimate ban in progress.
Miss Antwi said it was getting really bad with sales with many families now practicing “from the morgue to cemetery.”
This means once the dead bodies are moved from the morgue, they are buried the next minute.
Atta Kwaku John, an Undertaker, based at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, said COVID-19 and the restrictions were gradually throwing them out of a job because corpses are no longer laid in state for people to pay their last respect.
He said for about three weeks, he dressed only one dead body and said if the situation continued, he would look for a security job else he wouldn’t be able to cater for himself and his family.
Serwa Akoto, another Undertaker, said many clients were opting for private burials and shunning their services as it would have been before the directive on the social gathering.
Credit: GNA