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‘Give teeth to preventive measures to build on triumphs against COVID-19’
View(s):- Nothing has been gazetted, say PHIs, threatening to stop COVID-19 work
- Tourism Authority goes ahead with independent certification for hotels
Give teeth to the health preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.
This was the clear call from many sectors including health, with sources strongly urging that if the country does not give legal backing to these measures, the new coronavirus could rampage to all corners, with disastrous consequences.
Sri Lanka has successfully implemented social distancing, hand-hygiene, mask-wearing and a ban on large gatherings to keep COVID-19 at bay, with concerted identification of those affected by the infection, hospitalization and good management and contact tracing as well as quarantining all those who are returning to the country.
People complacent about preventive measures
So far, Sri Lanka has 2,014 confirmed cases, with 1,619 recoveries and 11 deaths, with the first imported case being a Chinese woman tourist in January, followed by the first local patient, a tour guide, in early March.
The worrisome equation in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 battle up to now has been the navy cluster which reached 947 yesterday but is subsiding and the returnee cluster that is still going on with 754 confirmed cases.
The next long mile the country has to traverse to ensure that there will be no community transmission is giving teeth to the health measures, many sources told the Sunday Times.
Legal strength can be given to these measures under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance which could be the basis on which gazettes are issued to support the efforts of the Public Health Service and the police, they pointed out.
“Some people listen and some don’t. Those who listen, question as to why preventive measures only apply to them. Those who are enforcing the measures have no answers,” the sources said.
A team from the Health Ministry’s Environmental Health, Occupational Health and Food Safety Unit under Deputy Director-General Dr. Lakshman Gamlath has drawn up detailed guidelines, more than 40, for different settings, to prevent the spread of the virus, as all precautions are needed with no abatement being seen around the world.
The guidelines have been put out under the endorsement of the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
PHI grievances
Pointing out that even though there is a law governing the spread of infectious diseases (the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance No. 3 of 1897), the President of the Public Health Inspectors’ (PHIs) Union, Upul Rohana said nothing has been gazetted with regard to COVID-19.
What should they do when someone violates the 46 sets of guidelines given by the Health Ministry, he asked, adding that they are unable to act without fear or favour.
Authority with regard to the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance has been bestowed on the Health Ministry and the Director-General of Health Services, while ‘inspection’ powers lie with the PHIs and police, he said.
There are 2,445 PHIs in Sri Lanka, the Sunday Times learns.
Referring to the problems they are facing in implementing the guidelines, Mr. Rohana said that people question them when they try to take action when someone violates a guideline.
He cited the specific examples of salons and weddings and explained that according to the guidelines, salons can only give hair-cuts to their clients but cannot perform facials, etc. “There is nothing gazetted. So how are we going to take action?”
With regard to weddings, he said that people are being asked to limit the number to 100, but in the run-up to the election there are plans for about 300-400 people to gather together. There is no guideline or law gazetted to implement these recommendations.
As such, the PHIs’ Union has decided to stop work with regard to COVID-19 from June 29 (tomorrow), if the Health Ministry does not take action to gazette these guidelines.
“We had our last meeting with Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi on Wednesday. When we brought up these issues, she said that the election guidelines will be released during the coming days but it was not necessary to gazette the other guidelines as the public has adopted those measures.”
SLTDA action
With many sources pointing out that people who are holidaying in hotels are not resorting to basic preventive measures, the Sunday Times contacted the Director-General of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Dhammika Wijayasinghe.
She said that the SLTDA requested the Health Ministry to give health certification to hotels through the Medical Officers of Health (MOHs) and PHIs, but they had verbally informed the SLTDA that they are not in a position to do so, due to the lack of human resources as well as their busy schedules.
“Therefore, we have opened tenders calling for companies to do the certification for us. We have even invited Sri Lanka Standards and private companies. We are evaluating bids at the moment,” she said, adding that they are in the final stage of evaluation. Thereafter, certification will begin.
The moment we certify a hotel, we will link up the certification with the immigration website so that they can open them for bookings, said Ms. Wijayasinghe.
“This company will do the certification for us and they will visit these places and check for compliance of the guidelines in the first instance, after which the certificate of compliance would be issued. Thereafter, they will carry out random spot-checks to ensure that certified institutions continue to follow the guidelines,” she said.
Sri Lanka has around 2,500+ accommodation locations, ranging from classified hotels to guest-houses with about 39,000 rooms.
Referring to the protocols that would be in place when the airport opens, she said tourists have to undergo four RT-PCR tests which include tests within 72 hours prior to arrival and on-arrival tests. The tourists would be requested to stay in a hotel close to Colombo under supervision for 24 hours until the test results are issued. They would also be subjected to another test, 5-7 days after arrival which they can do at private hospitals.
Ms. Wijayasinghe said that for tourists staying longer than 10 days, another RT-PCR test would be carried out between 10-12 days after arrival, under Health Ministry guidelines.
“We have 2,500+ hotels under us but there are many more outside our registration. We have been writing to almost all the hotels asking them to get registered with us because according to the Tourism Act, anybody who is providing services to foreign and local guests, has to be registered with us. We recommend that everybody even though they are not registered with us, should follow the guidelines because we don’t want community transmission of COVID-19 to begin,” the tourism DG added.
| Election guidelines to be gazetted The Elections Commissioner requested us to issue some guidelines and we did so. These are to be gazetted next week, the Health Ministry’s Deputy Director-General for Environmental Health, Occupational Health and Food Safety, Dr. Lakshman Gamlath said on Thursday. He explained that they appointed a committee headed by him to work on the guidelines which outline how meetings should be held, how campaigns should be conducted, how different settings should be established whether it is for postal voting or booth voting, how counting centres should be set up and more, while transportation of polling boxes and personnel as well as the protection of police officers on duty, are covered. The PHIs and police will ensure that the guidelines are adhered to, he added. | |
| Only 90 navy personnel ill now The Welisara navy camp was opened on June 23 and essential departments are working now, Navy Spokesman Lt. Com. Isuru Suriyabandara said, explaining that in about two weeks they are set to begin “work as usual”. The number of navy personnel infected by COVID-19 stood at 901 on Thursday and currently only 90 are undergoing treatment, as 811 have recovered and been discharged from hospital. These personnel have to spend 14 more days in quarantine after recovery. Over this period, the infected personnel were treated at the Welisara Navy Hospital, then the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) and the Homagama Hospital followed by other nearby COVID-19 designated hospitals, it is learnt. Illegal boat people No illegal boat landings have been detected after the June 7 incident where eight people were arrested when they arrived from India and were sent into quarantine, Lt. Com. Suriyabandara said. The navy has deployed vessels in the seas around the country, while the Air Force is also sending out aircraft to spot any illegal boats, he added. Timeline
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