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President of Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Dr Frank Ankobea has indicated the possibility of a further spread of the novel coronavirus in the country after the new voter’s registration exercise if the safety protocols are continuously ignored.

According to him, inasmuch as the law allows the Electoral Commission to compile new voter’s register for elections, the Commission must seriously ensure that the people who come for the registration stick to the safety protocols as it is the only way to stop the spread of the illness.

“We are law-abiding Ghanaians as every Ghanaian and so if the law says that the EC should compile new voter’s register, we cannot stop the EC but we can only insist that the EC makes sure that they maintain safety protocols because that is the only thing they can do to stop the spread of the illness and it can be done”, he cautioned.

“If you are serious about carrying out your responsibility, you know a lot of people will gather around and so why won’t maintain the safety protocols? What stops you from doing that? And so the EC should be able to drive someone away for not having their nose mask on at the registration centre and there should veronica bucket for people to wash their hands or ask the people to adhere to social distancing protocols while in the queue. Can’t we adhere to these protocols?”, he wondered.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Dr Frank Ankobea feared that without strict adherent to the safety protocols, the spread of the virus is inevitable as there is not cure for new coronavirus.

“What we as Ghana Medical Association is asking for are that we should make sure the safety protocols are adhered to. We are not in a tag-of-war with anybody; we have not asked the EC not to go on with the registration but we are simply saying that whatever they do, they should make sure that the safety protocols are maintained because that is the only way that since we don’t have the vaccine, we can do to prevent the spread”.

“If we don’t maintain the safety protocols, the COVID-19 definitely will spread after the registration; that is what will happen if we don’t maintain the safety protocols. The only way to prevent the spread is by sticking to the safety protocols”, he feared.

He however urged the Electoral Commission to stick to the safety protocols by ensuring that “the people put on their masks, wash their hands at the registration centres and maintain the social distancing”.

He reiterated that the GMA insistence on the use of safety protocols has to do with the fact that many people with the virus don’t show any symptom, making it possible for obvious spread of the COVID-19 as they have not been tested.

“…if we don’t use the safety protocols, automatically, it will spread and the most disturbing issue is that as it shoots up, the health workers will be at the receiving end of its effect. It will make our work difficult because right now, a lot of our workers are infected and if it continues like this, there will be no health workers to attend to COVID-19 patients in the hospitals and our system will be overwhelmed”, he alarmed.

“This is the reason why we always canvassing for people to adhere to the safety protocols because it is the only way we can prevent spread and so if we are registering people and we don’t stick to the safety protocols, there will be a serious problem for all us”, he warned.