Popular Ghanaian musician, Bice Osei Kuffour, known as Obour, has lost his dad to the deadly coronavirus.
The elderly man died of the novel coronavirus at the Ridge Hospital in Accra Friday evening.
This brings the number of deaths in Ghana to four.
Sources have revealed that the deceased was taken to the facility on March 26 showing symptoms of the virus.
His son, however, failed to immediately disclose the travel history of the deceased following the admission of his father who had recently returned from a trip to the United States.
Obour’s failure to disclose the travel history of his father, according to the hospital authorities from given the case its needed attention.
He, however, admitted at the resuscitation centre but the father died before the results of the test was ready.
The body of the deceased is still at a temporary morgue at the emergency centre of the Ridge Hospital.
Meanwhile, the deceased is said to have come into contact with some health workers who may not have known of his infection earlier.
About 15 of the health workers who were on duty at the time are expected to be taken through self-isolation while contact tracing begins.
Hospital authorities are also preparing to disinfect the emergency centre.
The authorities are said to be waiting for the National COVID-19 Response Team to take the necessary steps before getting the body moved.
The award-winning artist has issued a statement confirming the death.
With sadness and a heavy heart, I announce the death of Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour my biological father.
Nana returned from the UK on 19th March after his yearly visit to the family. Upon his return, he was fine but began coughing on Sunday 22nd.
We arranged for his blood sample to be tested and he tested positive for malaria.
We began treatment for malaria but his condition got worse. We arranged to bring him to Accra to be tested for Covid 19 at Ridge Hospital on Wednesday. They informed us that his report will be ready on Friday but we should keep him in quarantine which we did.
On Thursday night he had extreme difficulty with breathing so we called the Ambulance service and informed them of his condition. We told them the patient has tested for COVID 19 and awaiting his results so they should come along with appropriate apparel.
The ambulance team took him to Ridge Hospital around 11 pm on Thursday, March 26. We informed the health team at Ridge of his condition and also informed them he had earlier taken a test for Covid and awaiting results.
Late this afternoon, the Drs informed us that he is likely to be a confirmed Covid case and as such we should take steps to do a contact trace and quarantine ourselves. Sadly he passed on this evening.
Under the circumstances, I understand nobody can come over to pay their respects and commiserate with our family as we are all on a 14 Day quarantine though I and my assistant who had close contact with him have both tested negative for COVID 19 as at today 27th March.
These are the true facts about my father’s demise.
Bice Obour Osei Kuffour
