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Coronavirus crisis: Three quarantine centres set up in Sri Lanka
Three quarantine centres have been established in Sri Lanka by the health authorities to keep under observation people arriving here from high-risk COVID-19 affected countries.
Residents protesting against the quarantine centre coming to Hekitta. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
They are the Batticaloa private campus, the Kandakadu Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre and the Leprosy Hospital at Hekitta in Hendala.
Health Services Director-General Dr. Anil Jasinghe told the Sunday Times last afternoon that transportation of people arriving from the high-risk countries of Italy, South Korea and Iran to the Batticaloa quarantine centre would begin tomorrow.
The declaration of the Batticaloa private campus and Kandakadu centre came on Friday, following a week of protests by people at Hekitta over the decision earlier in the week to take-over three buildings of the Leprosy Hospital as a quarantine facility.
On Friday, the Sunday Times walked into a volatile protest by about 200 people including clergy from the Buddhist temple, churches and the Hindu kovil. There was a heavy police presence as well.
The slogan-shouting, placard-carrying protestors had also blocked the bottom part of Hekitta Road, and obstructed traffic. Their grouse was that the hospital in a heavily-populated area and flanked by two schools should not be turned into a quarantine centre.
Consultant Community Physician Dr. Kapila Piyasena of the Anti-Leprosy Campaign told the Sunday Times that since the 18th century, the hospital located on a large acreage of land had been a quarantine centre for patients living with leprosy. Even now there were 34 patients.
“We tried to explain to the protesters that there is no danger, as the people who would be kept there are not ill, but under observation as COVID-19 has about a two-week incubation period. We told them repeatedly that anyone detected with fever and cough during the screening at the airport would be taken to a designated hospital and not brought here. But they would not listen,” he added.
The Sunday Times understands that those quarantined on arrival in Sri Lanka will be provided all facilities and kept for around 14 days until the incubation period for the new coronavirus passes. During their stay at the centres, they would be checked day and night for illness and at the first signs sent to a designated hospital.
The centres have been acquired by the health authorities in terms of the wide powers granted under the ‘Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance’ introduced way back in 1897 to make provision for preventing the introduction into Sri Lanka of the plague and all contagious or infectious diseases and for preventing the spread of such diseases in and outside Sri Lanka.
A letter sent by the DG to the Batticaloa Campus Private Limited Chairman, M.H.A Hiras, dated March 6, states: ‘Notice of Acquisition’ – By virtue of the powers vested to me as the Proper Authority under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance No. 3 of 1897 and Regulations made thereunder, the Batticaloa campus is hereby temporarily acquired until further notice for quarantining purposes to prevent the introduction and transmission of Coronavirus disease – 2019 (COVID-19) in Sri Lanka.
The Batticaloa campus was founded by former Eastern Province Governor, M.L.A.M. Hisbullah.
The Kandakadu Centre, meanwhile, in the Polonnaruwa district, was a rehabilitation centre for ex-LTTErs which was in 2013, turned into a drug rehabilitation centre.
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