10 workstations cleared for recount

THE 10 rooms identified by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the establishment of workstations at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC) have been cleared by the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), however, the majority of the rooms can accommodate no more than 14 persons.

In preparations for a national recount of all the votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections, Chairman of GECOM Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, in her communication with Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, in his capacity as Chairman of the NCTF, requested guidance on the occupancy of the convention centre in view of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). In keeping with recommendations of the NCTF, a site visit was conducted on Monday April 20, 2020 by experts from the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) in the company of Justice Singh, the Elections Commissioners and the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield among other officials. A report was subsequently submitted to the Chair of GECOM.

On Thursday, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward told reporters that the report submitted by the NCTF cleared the 10 rooms identified for the establishment of workstations. GECOM had also proposed that each workstation have no more than 14 personc assigned, and that too was approved in part.

“Basically what the report has indicated to the chairperson and by extension the commission, is that the spaces identified to facilitate those 10 workstations can work; however, of those 10 workstations they have identified eight where there can be 14 persons, a maximum of 14 persons at any given workstation. Two of those they have identified where there can be at least 10 persons,” Ward explained while speaking to reporters on the outskirts of GECOM Headquarters.

Based on the number of persons allowed at each of the 10 workstations, at any given time there will be a total of 132 persons operating the workstations in the conference centre. Further to that, Ward noted that the report detailed 14 recommendations that the elections commission and its secretariat ought to implement during execution of the national recount.

“They have actually provided 14 guidelines in terms of protocols the commission should implement that is in terms of the sanitisation, the frequency at which the staff and other persons present at the respective workstations should sanitise. The protocol that should be used in terms of garbage disposal, the frequency with which the bins should be emptied, the number of bins, the rotation in terms of the lunch hours and other meal breaks,” Ward detailed.

The NCTF in its report, also underscored the importance of persons operating at the recount site to be hydrated, and for windows to remain open in accordance with established protocols of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

While the NCTF did not recommend that the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test be administered to every individual who will be involved in the tabulation process at the ACCC, it emphasised the importance of sanitisation in the quest to suppress the spread of the dreaded COVID–19.

“Well, they have advised in terms of the sanitisation protocols upon entry, [but] nothing in the report details anything in terms of persons being tested and so on before they occupy the space; but of course they emphasised a lot in terms of the sanitisation protocol, the protocol in terms of the frequency with which persons should dispose of the gloves and masks to be used, all of that are things that GECOM are to implement at the venue,” the PRO explained. It was noted that as the 2, 339 ballot boxes enter the centre they are likely to be sanitised.

Earlier this week the NCTF on the intervention of President David Granger, agreed to have Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officials coming to Guyana for the national recount to undergo the RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 instead of being subjected to 14 days of quarantine.

The identified CARICOM officials will be required to undergo the WHO-approved RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 in their respective home countries prior to arrival in Guyana, and entry would be permitted once the tests results are negative. The task force said if any official is unable to have such a test conducted in their home country, that upon their arrival in Guyana the Ministry of Public Health will facilitate the test here on condition that the official self-quarantines for a maximum of 48 hours while the test results are being ascertained.

As such, quarantining of the incoming officials for the mandatory period of 14 days will not be applicable upon compliance with either of the established requirements.
In addition to agreeing to have the RT-PCR tests done by the CARICOM officials, the task force has indicated that the tabulation process can be conducted up until 18:00hrs or 6pm daily due to the national curfew in place. As such, the workstations will operate for a period of 10 hours daily from 8:00hrs to 18:00hrs.