By Spy Uganda
Security officials at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Task Force are investigating circumstances under which A-Plus Funeral Services smuggled into Uganda a corpse of a man identified as Daniel Ssebuliba, 36, suspected to have died of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Work at Entebbe International Airport came to a standstill on Tuesday morning after cargo handlers landed on a corpse that had been smuggled into the country aboard a cargo plane from Dubai and was due for burial in Mukono with the help of A-Plus funeral services.
According to sources at the Airport, the body was booked onto the plane by A-Plus Funeral Management, a private funeral company, and it landed in Uganda at a time when President Yoweri Museveni had decreed that all bodies that die of Coronavirus should be buried in the countries where they die from.
“Human remains were formally received through Entebbe International Airport on Sunday, April 19, 2020 aboard Qatar Airways from Doha. There wasn’t any disguise. The Standard Operating Procedures for receiving human remains were observed in the presence of officials from the Uganda Red Cross Society, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health,” a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, Vianney Luggya said.
As soon as the corpse was confiscated,Police and Ministry of Health officials also forced those who had gone to pick the body, among them A-Plus officials, into compulsory 14-day quarantine.
On asking for the death certificate of the person in the casket, it was found out that their death was a result of Covid-19.
“Our Taskforce together with the team from Ministry of Health intercepted a body brought in the Country as Cargo from Dubai picked from the airport by A-Plus. We have quarantined all A-Plus crew at least for 14 days at our Isolation Centre. The death certificate relates to Covid-19. Please let’s continue to educate our masses on the danger and seriousness of this pandemic,” a statement from an official in the Ministry reads in part.
It should be recalled that while addressing the nation on Sunday, president Museveni directed that all people who die from abroad should be buried from there so that they don’t risk the transfer of COVID-19.
However, we have established that the COVID-19 Taskforce in conjunction with the Red Cross later managed to bury the corpse in Kayunga district. “The burial was managed by our safe and dignified burial team. With the current COVID-19 situation, the government considered him to be buried like this (by Red Cross team) to prevent the family members from being exposed,” A-plus says in the statement.
“We all know that the process of moving a dead body that came through from a high-risk country and Transit center can easily become a point of infection and transfer of the Coronavirus and therefore, to avoid exposing the family, Government of Uganda assigned Uganda Red Cross this role thru the Ministry Of Health,” the statement continues.
