Travelers screened for coronavirus at Pwalugu before allowed entry into Upper East

Correspondence from Upper East:

Travelers coming into the Upper East Region are being screened for symptoms of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) at Pwalugu in the Talensi District, before allowed entry into the region.

The screening exercise is part of measures put in place by the region's health authorities to combat the spread of the disease to the region which is yet to record a case.

Commercial and private vehicles that reached Pwalugu were instructed to stop and their occupants asked out of the vehicles for their body temperatures to be monitored with the help of infrared thermometers.

Those with normal body temperatures were allowed to further their journeys, whereas those who recorded body temperatures higher than the normal, were made to relax and temperatures taken for the second time.

As at 10 in the morning when our Upper East Regional Correspondent, Senyalah Castro, arrived there, travelers had queued up, waiting to be screened.

Travelers who recorded higher body temperatures on the first try were made to relax for some time before their body temperatures were monitored again. All those, who initially recorded higher temperatures, on the second attempt recorded normal body temperatures.

It was gathered that many of the travelers were people returning from the big cities such as Accra and Kumasi - running away from the lockdown in those cities

Personnel of the Ghana Police service were positioned there to ensure that no one flouted the regulation.

But even with their presence, there were a few instances when private vehicle owners dodged the instructions and made way without getting screened.

Some of the travelers our reporter interviewed expressed satisfaction with the screening procedure.