Mobile Vaccination Centres to be Launched-Head NOCPCO

One more session of the Task Force in the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID 19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) at Rajagiriya this afternoon (05), headed by General Shavendra Silva, Head of the NOCPCO, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, together with Director General of Health Services, Dr Asela Gunawardena, all other medical specialists, health administrators and relevant officials had a wide-ranging discussion on the current updates and rising numbers of COVID-19 patients and deaths.

General Shavendra Silva summing up the series of most recent developments in relation to increase in positive cases and death rates told the gathering that a special Presidential Task Force meeting, expected to be held on Friday (6) would decide the future course of action in view of developments taking place at hospitals and elsewhere. "Many many recommendations are forthcoming at different levels covering areas or being proposed and we need to evaluate deeply and see the selection of the best course of action in consultation with experts. People should also be more responsible for their actions than now. We have still not lifted travel restrictions within the provinces, only we have told government officials to report for work in their offices with necessary permissions as decided by the government. Even protests and strike actions make the situation worse, "he pointed out.

Touching on the national vaccination project, he said that more than 1 mn of Sinopharm vaccines have been kept reserved for the 2nd dose. I got permission from HE the President for the conduct of 24-hour vaccination centres in Viharamahadevi Park and Diyatha Uyana where we vaccinated around 20,000 per day. "We have observed that some of those who had the 1st dose are not interested in getting the second dose even though we had 24 hour open vaccination centres. We found the majority of dead people reported had not taken a single dose of vaccination. Again I met HE the President and got permission to locate vaccination centres for those who had not a single dose of vaccination in the country. So we had one in Viharamahadevi Park, 5 stations starting from Awissawella, IDH, National Hospital, etc. Nevertheless, we will try to launch mobile vaccination centres in Colombo municipality. We are planning to go from one yard (Watten Watta) to the other for vaccinating people in order to further enhance numbers of vaccinated people, "General Shavendra Silva said.

"Even though the vaccination is on, people have to continue to follow basics, like wearing face masks, keeping social distance, washing hands, etc. For example, yesterday we heard that a wedding in Anuradhapura was attended by 350 plus, and 50-60 of them were confirmed positive, so this is the situation with protests going on in the country. However, all of these things are going on in the country without caring for COVID transmission. We are very grateful to doctors and the health sector during this difficult task and it is going to be further difficult in the forthcoming months. All that we can do is to establish centres but the problem lies with supply of oxygen, etc. People also panic and seek to go to the hospital but we need to look after our medical staff and health sector workers to sustain these emergencies".

He also pointed out the risks involved even with smaller numbers getting together and said that different categories of vaccinations covering overseas students, foreign employees, etc in the Army hospital these days. DG Health Services explained the gathering about the nature of transmission of different variants, global scenario, etc. Other specialists and attendees also expressed their views.

Source: www.army.lk