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‘Voluntary compliance didn’t work, so Gazette is the alternative’

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi and Ruqyyaha Deane

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Here are the highlights of Friday’s media briefing at the Health Promotion Bureau chaired by Director Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawe.

Head of the Disaster Preparedness and Response Division of the Health Ministry, Dr. Hemantha Herath:

When pointed out that the Health Ministry brings in guidelines but implementation is the problem, Dr. Herath said the initial approach was to get public support for the desired behaviour through ‘voluntary compliance’, however, it did not happen.
This is why we have to resort to alternative actions and one is the recent Gazette, which gives the required powers to the relevant authorities, that is the Director-General (DG) of Health Services. Then the DG can delegate the activities, superseding other instructions.
We cannot say which area is in danger of being hit by COVID-19 because the numbers change. If we find 25-30 patients from a particular Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area on one day, the next day there is a relatively smaller number from the same area. What is important is that this increase in the number of patients would affect the country as a whole.
We need a behavioural change to ensure that all of us adhere strictly to the health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This is because our behaviour today will determine the number of patients detected over the next 10 days.
With regard to many people becoming homeless due to the floods and being accommodated in temporary shelters, Dr. Herath advised them to try and be with their own families, maintaining social distancing from others as much as possible, while resorting to hand-hygiene and also mask-wearing.

‘Some children back in class but need more attendance’

The Education Ministry’s Additional Secretary, L.M.D. Dharmasena:

The children in Grade 1 to 5 and Grades 11, 12 and 13 are back in school, with an average attendance of 62% across the country on Friday, while 77% of the teachers reported for duty.
Of 1.8 million students who should have been in school only 1.1 million came in to class. Student attendance rates are low and parents are urged to send their children to school. If your child is ill, do not send him/her to school.
Over 10,000 schools have been opened with a balance of over 8,000 schools awaiting opening.
Vaccination is being rolled out well, with many provinces recording high numbers, except Uva which stands at 53%. When asked why, the Additional Secretary said they were in touch with the health authorities to determine the cause.
Around 73% of Grades 11-13 students have been vaccinated. From a student population of 994,515 in these grades, 730,810 have been vaccinated.
When asked how many children had been affected by COVID-19 after schools were re-opened, the Additional Secretary said only a few.