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Bright lights, more activities for holiday makers
By Shelton Hettiarachchi from Nuwara Eliya
As the holiday season dawns, Nuwara Eliya is set for a hive of activities with the Municipal Council and the police expecting more visitors than in previous years.
With good weather conditions, and a peaceful atmosphere prevailing, private organisations have organised various activities for the next two weeks.

About 400 policemen, from the South and Trincomalee and members from the police training school have been placed on duty. Mayor Chandana Lal Karunaratna who has been planning for the season months ahead told The Sunday Times that special attention had been given to beautifying and cleaning up the city.

The city will be brighter than usual with plans to illuminate it all night long adding to the carnival atmosphere. Residents say this was probably the first time since 1954, when Queen Elizabeth visited Nuwara Eliya that it was being lit up.

A special feature this time would be an area exclusively for childrens' activities opposite Gamini Maha Vidyalaya.The Army is organising a carnival and playground.
"Our hotel is fully booked and people are making inquiries about other guest houses as well. But we have checked and found that those places are also full," an official of Grand Hotel said.

The average hotel charges have been increased by almost double the usual in some of the hotels and guest houses, but almost all of them have been fully booked for the next few days.

Many visitors are unhappy over the presence of large numbers of policemen, pointing out that it was unnecessary given the peaceful atmosphere.
But police believe that additional personnel are necessary given the large numbers of visitors.

SARS: Lankans not heeding warnings
By Nalaka Nonis
Health officials here complain that despite warnings, people continue to travel to SARS affected countries in South East Asia. Chief Epidemiologist Dr. T. A. Kulathilake, reiterated the importance of curtailing visits to SARS hit countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and certain provinces in China to prevent the deadly disease from reaching Sri Lanka.

Reports about Sri Lankans not heeding health advice came as a Sri Lankan, suspected to be a SARS patient was admitted to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) this week. He had reportedly gone to Hong Kong about two weeks ago. This was the third person suspected to have been infected with SARS within one week.
The Sunday Times also learns that Sri Lankans have been travelling to attend the annual Guangzhou fair in China despite health warnings.

Titus stores Chairman J. T. Livera who is a regular participant at this annual fair said about 200 Sri Lankans attend this function annually and this year too many people had gone despite warnings.

As the fear of SARS reaching Sri Lanka increased, the IDH was reportedly gearing to meet the situation. Medical chief Rosmond Rupasena said the Health Ministry was taking additional steps to strengthen facilities in the IDH. "The Health Ministry has provided additional protective gear, including masks, protective kits and an X-ray machine to the IDH," he said.

He also said a special Intensive Care unit had been opened at the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital in the event of any critical SARS cases being admitted.
Meanwhile an earlier reluctant private sector has agreed to take in any suspected SARS cases.

Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Director in charge of Private hosptials told The Sunday Times that they had met with representatives of private hospitals and requested them to admit SARS patients.

At BIA too there is increased alertness in the wake of three suspected SARS cases being reported in Sri Lanka. A Medical official in the Quarantine Division at the Katunayake airport said that they are extra-cautious at the airport especially when flights from SARS affected countries arrive.

He said about 1000 masks were being used by officers at the airport as a precautionary measure. But on a more positive note, the Tourist industry was seeing an increase in tourist arrivals.

Tourist Board Director General S. Kalaiselvam said this could be due to tourists who were to travel to countries like Singapore and Hong Kong now opting for South Asian countries due to the fear of SARS.

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