Some health professionals in the country have written an open letter to the Electoral Commission warning of more COVID-19 deaths should a mass voter registration exercise be held.

The health professionals comprising doctors, nurses, laboratory professionals among others insisted that the exercise has the potential of compromising the health of the Ghanaian population hence must be halted.

“We have never expected our work as health professionals to be easy, but neither do we expect it to be suicidal. We wish to advise that caution is exercised in undertaking any activity that has the potential to accelerate the spread of COVID-19. We believe the impending mass registration exercise falls in this category and has the potential to compromise the health and wellbeing of the population leading to unwanted pain, trauma, and possibly deaths as the past few days have shown.”

The workers who are 113 in number further outlined seven reasons why the electoral management body must reverse its decision to go ahead with the registration exercise in the build-up to the 2020 general elections.

“Our intent for writing this letter is not to contest your legal mandate to compile a voters’ register, but to share with your team the potential health dangers this proposed exercise may foist on the nation especially considering the recent wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths that continue to stretch the capacities of health care facilities; we are steadily reaching breaking point,” portions of the letter read.

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The local media reported that a team of Nigerian scientists has announced the discovery of a preventive vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

Since the outbreak of the virus, numerous efforts have been made by scientists globally but all proven futile.

However, the emerging report indicates that there has been a development to that effect.

“It is our passion to be a solution provider to such a global pandemic, and we are ready to throw our weights behind the team and make the vaccine a reality,” news website Leadership quoted the leader of the COVID-19 Research Group, Dr. Oladipo Kolawole.

“The vaccine is real. We have validated it several times. It is targeted at Africans, but will also work for other races. It will work. It cannot be faked. This is a result of the determination. It took a lot of scientific efforts,” Kolawole told reporters at Adeleke University in Nigeria’s Eda state Friday.

“The population of those that need vaccines is more than those that need drugs. That is why the research focused on a vaccine,” he noted.

The study that the vaccine was based on was initially funded by the Trinity Immunodeficient Laboratory and Helix Biogen Consult, Ogbomosho, with roughly 7.8 million Nigerian nairas ($20,000), according to the report.

Kolawole went on to say that his team had worked extensively on the virus’s genome from samples across Africa to select the best potential vaccine candidates.

The researchers of the team had made the possible latent vaccine constructs, Kolawole revealed, without naming the vaccine.

He added that it would take a minimum of 18 months to release the vaccine for widespread use, due to a large amount of research, analysis and approvals required by medical authorities.

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The start date of the exercise, however, remains Tuesday, June 30.

But it will now end on Thursday, August 6, according to promotional advertisements which started being rolled out on Sunday.

The decision by the EC to compile a new voter register has been met with resistance from some major political parties and civil society organisations (CSOs).

Most of these dissentients believe the timing for the compilation of a new register, particularly in an election year, is wrong.

This has, however, been parried by the Chair of the Commission, Jean Adukwei Mensa, who told leaders of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) last week that it is not the first time a register is being compiled in an election year.

She said in 2004 and as recent as 2012, the registers were compiled same year as the elections.

“Indeed in 2012, that was when the biometric technology was introduced to the country,” Mrs Mensa said.

“At that time, it was new and we didn’t have experiences in it but the Commission felt it was necessary in the interest of strengthening the system to compile a new register.”

The largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has since filed a suit at the Supreme Court, praying the court to stop the Commission from carrying out the exercise.

The party has cited the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus disease as even a reason why the EC should only conduct a limited registration as a mass registration will put the citizenry at risk.

But the Commission has already started rolling out advertisements on the impending exercise.

From the ads, the registration begins 7:00am and ends 6:00pm each day. It has already conducted a pilot exercise in all 16 regions of the country. With the exception of the Western Region, where the biometric verification machines failed on the second day, the exercise was generally deemed successful.

“The Commission is satisfied with the exercise and will use the lessons learnt to improve upon the conduct of the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise,” the EC said in a statement following the piloting.

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It appears there is some behind-the-scenes campaign among some police officers to reject food ration that comes with their lockdown duties.

The agitation begun on WhatsApp platforms created by the policemen from the ranks of constables to chief inspectors and their depot (course) mates is gathering momentum.

The policemen want GH¢100 daily as promised them for the enforcement of the restrictions order instead of food.

An article written by one of the officers has since gone viral on the various WhatsApp groups and it has received the tacit support of members.

The article among other things said “if the Police Administration cannot promote our welfare in times like this, the best they could do is not to complicate it. The food being served is cold and unwholesome, especially during this period when experts advice is to stay off cold food and prepare food from home.”

“Police is not immune to covid-19. Join hands and let’s demand for our ration by boycotting the food being served”, were his concluding remarks whiles calling for a total rejection, thereby sparking the agitations among the ranks.

The police administration has since explained to them how they came by the decision to supply them food instead of cash but some of the police officers are adamant.

Some policemen initially complained of non-payment of the amount whiles others claimed they were only paid ?50 instead of the ?100 per head per day, apart from the fact that they said the food given them was not only poor in quality but also not up to the amount they are entitled to.

When the agitations started, the police administration issued a statement not denying the non-payment or the reduction in the amount of money to be paid to men performing such duties but instead rationalising their decision to supply them with food which they insist is of poor quality.

Their reason was to save policemen from leaving or deserting their duty post to go food hunting.

“Do they want to tell us that when they send us on guard duties and all that, when we go, we don’t eat before we go to work and that they have been bringing us food at our duty post?”

“It is just an excuse to take our money and this is not the first or the last it will happen; they do it all the time, even on election and registration duties,” he revealed.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

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