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COVID control: Gazette to enforce tough guidelines
View(s):A Gazette giving legal teeth to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is due to be issued this weekend, as Colombo and a few other districts open under a controlled mechanism, a high-level health official said.
The Gazette to be issued under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance would ensure social distancing and other measures such as adequate facilities for hand-hygiene, as the country is opened up after the lockdown, Health Services Director-General Dr. Anil Jasinghe told the Sunday Times.
“We cannot afford to keep the country closed for a long period,” he said, pointing out that the Gazette would allow for legal action to be taken if social distancing and hand-hygiene facilities are not in place.
He said that in addition to the guidelines already developed for the country to adhere to after the lockdown was eased, more specific guidelines which would go “very deep” were also in the pipeline. This is while the legal empowerment through the latest Gazette would help maintain the gains achieved during the lockdown.
“Legal power would be vested in me as DG of Health Services and I would be able to delegate some of these powers to the police to act on my behalf and also seek the assistance of the armed forces,” he said.
A seven-member operational and monitoring cell headed by Dr. Hemantha Herath, the National Coordinator for Disaster Management, has been established to work closely with different levels of healthcare staff. These levels are the Medical Officers of Health (MOHs), the Regional Directors of Health (RDHS) and the Provincial Directors of Health (PDHS) and also the hospitals to support OPD and triaging protocols, it is learnt.
This cell would be in constant touch with the divisional health units, Dr. Jasinghe added.
The Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance of 1897 makes 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”.
Under this ordinance, the Minister may, from time to time, make and when made revoke or vary, such regulations as may seem necessary or expedient for the purpose of preventing the introduction into Sri Lanka of any disease.
“All regulations made under this ordinance shall be published in the Gazette and shall from the date of such publication have the same force as if they had been enacted in this ordinance,” it adds.