NOCPCO Head & Experts Assess COVID-19 Developments

General Shavendra Silva, Head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army presiding a routine session of the Task Force of the NOCPCO with Director General of Health Services, Dr Asela Gunawardene this afternoon (11) presented a lengthy account of the most recent developments as regards the control of COVID-19 epidemic in Sri Lanka.

The reasons attributed to the drop in the positive numbers in the past were largely because of the restrictions the government placed on travel movements, public gatherings, ceremonies, weddings etc, but there has been a slight increase of the positive cases about 500 - 700 per day in the last couple of days, most probably due to relaxation of those restrictions and large gatherings, weddings, funerals, Katina Pooja, etc, General Shavendra Silva said.

“We could anticipate a further rise of positive cases in the coming days due to such congestions as we have witnessed a few clusters in Minuwangoda, Thambuttegama, Moneragala, Hambantota and Anuradhapura. Therefore, people should strictly adhere to health guidelines and maintain social distance although travel restrictions have been completely removed but with certain restrictions as advised by HE the President,” he added.

Explaining about the drop in death rate and conduct of PCR tests, vaccination process for university and Ayurveda university students, foreign employment seekers, administering of the booster vaccine as the 3rd one, acceleration of vaccination for state officials and government agencies, etc, General Shavendra Silva said that home quarantine process and the general quarantining procedures as well as the ICCs have largely contributed to the government’s machinery for COVID-19 control.

Members of the NOCPCO Task Force including health authorities, experts and administrators discussed at length about the transmission patterns of the deadly virus and its emergence of different variants, particularly in foreign soils.

Dr Asela Gunawardene, Director General of Health Services also contributed to the discussion by explaining statistics, related to global cases, separate control measures and health guidelines, etc as well as the international scenario.

Source: www.army.lk