Health officials have launched investigations into allegations that the family of musician Obuor’s father, who has died from suspected coronavirus complications, failed to disclose vital information to health personnel.

Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour was taken to the Ridge Hospital (Greater Accra Regional Hospital) on Thursday showing symptoms of the virus but died the following day.

He was the father of Obuor or Bice Osei Kuffuor, former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).

Commenting on the matter on Sunday, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, disclosed that a full report on the matter should be ready by Wednesday, April 2, 2020.

“The initial brief that came in was to the effect that this patient [Obuor’s father] has a prior condition and has been tested…and that his earlier test was not disclosed either to the persons who were picking him up in the ambulance or the persons in the emergency room that had to receive him first,” Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told JoyNews.

He said about 15 to 20 persons had come into contact with Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour before he died.

He said after reports that Obuor’s father could have died from coronavirus complications, it became “important to quickly activate protocols and ask these persons to go into self-isolation and then to disinfect the place so that we can open it up again for other persons to utilise.”

A full investigation will go through the records to validate if the allegations are true, the Information Minister disclosed.

Allegation

JoyNews sources at the hospital had alleged that the family of the deceased failed to disclose important information about the coronavirus symptoms he had been showing to health personnel for precautionary measures to be taken.

The death of Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour brought to four the number of coronavirus victims in Ghana.

Ghana now recorded 152 and five deaths as of March 29, 2020.

Amidst a public backlash on the musician about how his family handled the matter, he released the following statement:

With sadness and a heavy heart, I announce the death of Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour, my biological father.

Nana returned from 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 11pm 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.