Election Workers and COVID-19

Marvin Manzanero

Nomination Day has come and gone – without much fanfare in most parts and that’s because of COVID-19. And with elections less than two weeks away – it’s left to be seen how that will play out. One would think that it will also be low-key and without mass gatherings. And while the authorities are making sure that it will be safe for voters to go out and exercise their right – but what about those who are mandated to work? They will be making contact with hundreds and in some cases thousands of people. Will they be tested before going to the polls? Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero spoke on the issue on Ask the Experts on Thursday.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“Will public officers working elections be tested before returning back to work? I was asked why don’t we test them before they go and work for elections because the trick part here is how will we be able to ascertain, let’s say you swab them – I don’t know how many people will work for elections – let’s say you swab one hundred people who work for elections, how will you know who got infected by working the election duties? There is no way we will be able to ascertain that that is where a person became infected. If in point of fact you can have a population of thirty percent of people being asymptomatic, you can then anticipate that out of a hundred people in Orange Walk, thirty would be asymptomatic but that might not be the case if you are doing a sampling of let’s say Cayo that seems to have a lower incidence/prevalence rate. I did get this question asked specifically by Elections and Boundaries and by the Public Service Union but I have not responded but the gist of my response is going to be there. While we are able to do that we need to know why we are specifically doing that because I don’t think we will be able to ascertain that officers got infected while working election duties.”