News
NIID escapee had recovered and no fear of COVID-19 spread
A mini-drama was enacted in Colombo city, as news spread that a COVID-19 patient receiving treatment at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Angoda, had run away Friday early morn, with a hunt being launched for him.
The runaway patient who was apprehended in the vicinity of the National Hopital was later taken back to the NIID. Pic by Reka Tharangani
While a description along with his photograph was circulated widely and concern gripped the city, the face-mask wearing patient in his early forties, said to be a drug addict, arrived at the OPD of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) later in the morning.
“He was then taken back to the NIID and the driver of the three-wheeler who brought him has been sent to the Welisara Navy Hospital,” Army Spokesperson, Brigadier Chandana Wickramasinghe told the Sunday Times.
When contacted, Consultant Physician Dr. Eranga Narangoda of the NIID allayed fears by reiterating that the man had recovered and had developed antibodies and as such there was no danger of him spreading COVID-19. He is due to be discharged today (Sunday) and would probably be sent back to the Kandakadu Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre.
The man had been in isolation in a room on the first floor of the NIID, when he jumped out of a window and ran away. He had sprained his ankle in his attempt to flee, while he also had a limp from a fracture he had suffered a while ago, it is learnt.
Dr. Narangoda said that he had walked around for several hours trying to hail a trishaw but none had stopped for him. In Pettah, he had experienced slight chest pain, managed to get into a trishaw and wanted to be brought back to the NIID, but the driver had taken him to NHSL as it was closer.
Currently, there are 50 patients at the NIID, with none in the ICU. These patients include returnees, those from Kandakadu and a few from Rajanganaya, the Sunday Times learns.
When asked whether there was community spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, Dr. Narangoda said that it was highly unlikely.
“We have opened the NIID OPD for our usual patients and are conducting RT-PCR tests, all of which are negative. This indicates that there is no community transmission,” he stressed.
Referring to the man who escaped from the NIID on Friday, Brigadier Wickramasinghe said that he was originally from Trincomalee but had left his family some time ago and been roaming around Pettah as a beggar. He was also addicted to drugs. Early into the COVID-19 outbreak, when the homeless were rounded up and sent to Iranamadu, he had been part of that group.
“Later, due to his addiction he had been transferred to the Kandakadu centre and when he tested positive for COVID-19 in the recent cluster there, he had been sent to the NIID for treatment,” he said.
The Army Spokesperson pointed out that the National Strategy with regard to COVID-19 consisting of the pillars of tracing, containment, prevention and public awareness with support from the media worked in this case and proved that it had a practical and doable approach.
Strong community RT-PCR testing programme
The implementation of a concerted testing programme whether the caseload is zero or near-zero in an area was discussed at length on Thursday, at a crucial meeting chaired by the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, and attended by all provincial and regional officials.
The discussions in which there was active participation of both Provincial and Regional Directors of the Health Service (PDHS and RDHS), focused on a strong community RT-PCR testing plan, the Sunday Times learns.
Dr. Jasinghe said that usually complacency may set in when the number of COVID-19 positive cases comes down.
“But we want to ensure that even if the caseload is 0 we would be alert and vigilant in each and every district, especially when the country is opened up fully and we face the new normal,” he said, explaining that they are hoping to have testing in proportion to the population in every Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area, with a certain number of tests being done per week.
Dr. Eranga Narangoda
The tests would be carried out among all possible target groups with input from the Epidemiology Unit, with each district being informed in advance where the samples for these tests would be collected, it is learnt.
This testing plan is to be centrally-monitored.
“It would help us to test the pulse of COVID-19 systematically and regularly,” said Dr. Jasinghe.
A massive advocacy campaign covering the full-range of media such as radio, TV and billboards on the street is to be launched in about a week on the health preventive measures against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, across the country, pockets of potential COVID-19 were found, reportedly linked to the cluster which has emerged from the Kandakadu centre.
An Advanced Level (Physics) teacher from a school in Gampaha was tested positive on July 18, the area’s MOH Dr. Subasha Subasinghe said.
The male teacher’s brother-in-law, a driver, had visited an instructor at the Kandakadu centre on June 25. Both the instructor and driver had tested positive on July 13 and the teacher – who had held his usual tuition classes and gone to the school where he teaches – had been told to be in home quarantine.
Thereafter, 150 students, teachers and relatives who came into contact with him were also placed in home quarantine or at quarantine centres.
In a similar incident in Kahathuduwa, 65 people including a teacher, students and their parents are in home-quarantine, the contacts of three people who tested positive on July 22.
The three people had links with the Kandakadu centre, a source said, adding that the 65 have been subjected to testing, the results of which are negative.
From July 17 to 24, there have been 77 positive cases, of whom 31 were from the Kandakadu cluster and 46 returnees from abroad. As of Friday evening, there were 2,764 cases; of which 573 were from the Kandakadu cluster; 928 were returnees; and 950 were from the navy cluster which included personnel and their contacts. There have been 11 deaths, while 2,103 patients have recovered so far.
In positive news, Navy Spokesman Captain Indika De Silva said that on July 20, the last three navy personnel in that cluster recovered and were discharged from hospital. They are in self-quarantine for two weeks.
Nine hundred and six personnel tested positive between April 22 and July 8. This cluster is no more as of July 22.