Telangana: Officials take steps to keep Covid at bay in Huzurabad

HUZURABAD: It would have been a battle between various parties and candidates for the Huzurabad assembly seat, the polling for which was held on Saturday, but for the health staff, it was a bigger battle – the battle against Covid-19.
A temperature check was must for voters. Masks were given away, sanitisers were made available and most of all plastic gloves for one hand were important.After casting their vote, the voters had to dispose of the gloves in the baskets provided for the purpose. At all the polling booths, medicines were also made available, in case anyone needed to be given if they were running a temperature. However, they were also to come back to vote only if they had a Covid-19 negative report.
During the early hours, the circles drawn for voters to maintain social distance served their purpose but once the rush increased, the social distancing norm went for a toss at several polling booths. It needed effort on the part of the police and staff to ask them to maintain social distancing. With the hot sun blazing, the authorities got shamianas (tents) erected and this served the purpose to some extent but in most places lack of such a facility left many standing in the hot sun waiting for their turn to cast their vote.
The ‘health camp’ booths that were set up provided medication to those who needed it. “A person had a temperature. We gave him a tablet and asked him to return after three hours if he felt alright,” a health staff told TOI at one of the polling booths.
Karimnagar additional collector Garima Agarwal said that efforts were made to provide a safe environment for voters. “We allowed them if they had a negative report, so that they are not dissuaded from participating in the election process,” she said.