Prez poll: Isolation room set up at Delhi Vidhan Sabha for anyone with COVID-19 symptoms

With MLAs casting their votes for the presidential poll in the Delhi Assembly building, arrangements were made on Monday to check for any COVID-19 symptoms among those entering the premises.

An isolation room was set up at the entry of Assembly building where anyone found with symptoms of COVID-19 like fever were to be kept and checked for the infection before being allowing to proceed further.

This is the first presidential poll being held in the country after the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.

The polling room has been set up in one of the larger rooms of the imposing single-storey British-era building of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha, officials said.

A medical facility was also set up in a separate room.

Doctors and medical experts have cautioned that while the number of daily cases being recorded in Delhi in the last several days is relatively less than earlier, the pandemic is ”far from being over”.

At the entrance to the polling station, security personnel sat next to a table with a pack of masks, and a few bottles of hand sanitiser. Temperature readings of entrants were being taken with thermal guns.

”We are taking full precautions, and advising everyone to keep the mask on,” said a security personnel on duty.

Voting began on Monday morning and concluded at 5 pm at the Delhi Assembly premises for the Presidential Election amid tight security arrangements.

NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against joint Opposition pick Yashwant Sinha in the much-awaited poll to elect the next President of India.

As many as 4,809 electors comprising MPs and MLAs were eligible to vote.

The ballot box and other important poll material for the upcoming presidential election was brought to the premises of the Delhi Assembly and stored in a strong room on July 13.

The strong room was sanitised prior to storage of the material and properly sealed under strict videography monitoring and other appropriate security measures, an official said.

Counting for the poll will take place in the national capital on July 21, after all ballots from states are brought here.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)