The Korle Bu Police Station registration centre within the Ablekuma South District of the Greater Accra Region identified over 20 persons seeking to register for the voter ID card presenting symptoms of COVID-19 at the centre.
According to one of the Health Officers stationed at the registration centre, Rabiatu Braimah, these persons had high temperatures, were coughing or had a cold.
Each person at a registration centre has their temperature taken by health personnel looking out for temperatures above 37.5 degrees.
Rabiatu Braimah noted that they recorded figures as high as 39.6 degrees, “which is a little troubling”.
“Not just the temperature, these are people who are giving us symptoms of cough, cold and some are trying to be smart about it, but once you persist, they tell you they have had a cough for about a week,” she explained.
People with high temperatures are set aside from the other persons and re-checked.
“There are people we go back to check and you realize the temperature goes back to normal. Others, it rather keeps escalating,” she recalled.
For persons whose temperature do not drop, they call for “reinforcements” she said, without specifying if they are tested for the virus.
“We don’t really put up any attitude to make them feel discriminated against. We try to explain and they have been very cooperative.”
The EC has already given an indication of the safety protocols it hopes to abide by as the registration proceeds.
But reports indicate that it has been a struggle to adhere to social distancing.
Among other things, it is mandatory to wear face masks at the registration centres, people’s temperatures are to be checked before one is allowed into the registration centre and there should be running water available for handwashing.
Queues are also supposed to have one-metre gaps between persons lining up to register. The scanners are supposed to be sanitised and persons who complete the registration process are to be provided with hand sanitisers before they leave the centre.
