The Builsa North District Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Upper East Region has cautioned prospective registrants of the ongoing voters' registration exercise not to visit the centres with children.

That, the Commission said would prevent any possible transmission of COVID-19 to the children who had low immune systems and were more at risk of contracting the virus as they played around.

Addressing registrants at various registration centres across the District, as part of the Commission’s mandate to educate members of the public on the COVID-19 safety protocols, Mr Jeffery Adda, the District Director of the NCCE, said children easily touched things around them and transferred their contaminated hands into their mouths.

He said they equally picked objects around and kept same in their mouths, which also exposed them to the risk of contracting the virus, and emphasized the need for parents not to visit voters’ registration centres with their children.

“You protect yourselves by wearing your face masks and washing your hands, but for the children, you cannot fully protect them. You should leave them at home. So that they don’t come here and infect themselves as they touch surfaces around.”

Mr Adda said it was the duty of citizens to complement the efforts of the Commission to fight the virus, stressing that “The virus is real, so let’s not compromise on the safety protocols, besides you can’t look at somebody’s forehead and tell if the person is infected or not.”

At the Ayieta Junior High School and most of the registration centres the Director and his team visited, including the Sandema Traditional Court A and B, the Sandema Local Council Hall among others, children were loitering about while parents looked on.

Even though most prospective registrants had their face masks on, there was no social distancing among them at most registration centres visited, which prompted Mr Adda to rearrange them in queues to ensure that the social distancing protocol was strictly observed.

He also urged officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) at the centres not to proceed with the registration exercise if registrants failed to observe the safety protocols.

Mr John Ayamga, a Nutrition Officer at the Builsa North District Health Directorate, who was part of the team to ensure that health professionals assigned to the various centres had functional thermometer guns to check temperatures of registrants, reiterated the need for citizens to assist the NCCE and the Ghana Health Service to fight the virus.

He said, “It is a collective responsibility, all hands must be on deck if we do our part as Ghana Health Service and NCCE also does its part, and you the citizens fail to do your part, we cannot defeat the virus.”

Mr Sherif Alhassan the District EC Director, observed that human beings naturally would violate the safety protocols, especially when authorities were not around to monitor, adding that the protocols were for the good of all citizens.

“Life matter, it makes no sense when you register and die out of contracting the virus, safety first,” he said.

Mr Alhassan told the Ghana News Agency at Sandema that his outfit had so far registered over 7,000 voters in the District without any major challenge.