Twenty people who showed up at the Korle Bu Police Station registration centre located in the Ablekuma South District of the Greater Accra region to register for the Voter Identification Card (ID) have shown symptoms of the deadly COVID-19.

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, began registering voters across the country for the 2020 polls.

The EC said it had put in place measures to ensure that the COVID-19 safety protocols are adhered to.

These include the compulsory wearing of masks at all registration centres, the placement of Veronica buckets at all centres to ensure persons who visit the registration centres wash their hands and observe social distancing.

However, a health officer at the Korle Bu Police Station registration centre, Rabiatu Braimah, disclosed on the first day of the registration exercise that the 20 persons were coughing, had a cold and recorded high body temperatures.

Ms Braimah indicated that the health officers stationed at the registration centres were looking out for temperatures above 37.5 degrees as they checked persons who reported to the registration centres.

Such persons are separated from the crowd and their temperatures taken again.

She noted that temperatures as high as 39.6 degrees were recorded, which she described as “a little troubling.”

She stated: “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”.

“There are people we go back to check and you realise the temperature goes back to normal. Others, it rather keeps escalating.”

The health officer also noted that persons whose temperature do not drop after the second check were cooperative and explained their conditions to them.

“We don’t really put up any attitude to make them feel discriminated against. We try to explain and they have been very cooperative,” Ms Braimah said.