Measures are being put in place to ensure that the National Identification Authority (NIA) re-commences its registration exercise successfully, without endangering the lives of the people.

As a result, officials of the authority have undergone an orientation on COVID-19 preventive protocols to prepare them adequately for the upcoming mass registration exercise in the Eastern Region and a nationwide mop-up programme.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, the Head of National Risk Communication and Social Mobilisation of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Dacosta Aboagye, said the day’s orientation course was organised by his outfit.

Participants were drawn from the Operations, Technology and Biometrics and Corporate Affairs departments of the NIA.

He explained that it formed part of an ongoing national exercise to institutionalise COVID-19 preventive protocols to help people live with the disease in safety in “the new normal”.

According to him, the institutionalisation of the preventive measures would enable institutions, businesses and individuals to carry out their normal activities in safety to minimise the risk of infections.

Focus

Dr Aboagye said the orientation programme focused on six key areas, including respiratory etiquette, such as the mandatory wearing of masks; the mandatory checking of temperature of all people, the mandatory washing of hands with soap under running water, adherence to physical distancing of between one and two metres, the use of hand sanitisers and the cleaning and sanitising of equipment and the disinfection of fingerprint and iris scanners.
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Background

The NIA began the registration of people in the Eastern Region on March 8, 2020 when the country had not recorded any case of COVID-19.

On March 12, 2020, however, Ghana recorded its first two cases, leading to some restrictions on human movement, including a ban on public gatherings, religious activities, mass gatherings and closure of schools by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on March 15, 2020.

That notwithstanding, the NIA said it was going ahead with the exercise because it formed part of the essential services exempted under the restrictions.

Subsequently, two persons, Mark Oliver Kevor and Emmanuel Okrah, filed a case in court, asking that the NIA be stopped from carrying out its registration exercise because the action was contrary to the physical distancing directives issued by the President.

On March 27, 2020, an Accra High Court ruled that the NIA was entitled to continue with its work of registering Ghanaians.

A Court of Appeal judge, Anthony Oppong, who was sitting in as an additional High Court judge, held that the application for injunction was based on a grievous error and misunderstanding of the President’s physical distancing directive.

The court dismissed the substantive case as well.

Later that same day, the NIA announced that it had indefinitely suspended the exercise in the Eastern Region until further notice.