Thiruvananthapuram: Polling officials and agents are not mandated to take COVID tests. No instruction in this regard has been issued, State Election Commissioner V. Bhaskaran said.

He said the commission had not instructed polling officials to check the temperature of voters from other states. The commissioner said he was issuing the clarification since there was a lot of wrong information doing the rounds. He urged the voters to ascertain the facts and not to get swayed by such information.

The commission issued the statement as the state completed two phases of the local body elections, on December 8 and 10. The next phase is scheduled for December 14 and the counting is on 16.

The elections will elect members to 1119 local bodies in the state - including six Corporations, 14 district panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 941 grama panchayats, and 87 municipalities.