NOCPCO Task Force Recommends Review of Quarantine Procedures

General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of the Army and Head, NOCPCO during one more Task Force meeting at the NOCPCO said that although there records a marked drop in detection of new COVID-19 cases, there are still a few clusters that have been reported from Kandy, Morawaka and Katunayake areas after patients coming to hospitals are exposed to PCR tests.

He pointed out that the vaccination process is on in Colombo and Gampaha districts as planned and the second dose will be inoculated in the second week of April as scheduled.

“People getting ready for the New Year celebration should be more careful to avoid group contacts and should strictly adhere to health guidelines. Talking about the quarantining of Sri Lankan expatriates, he added that approval has been granted to review the current strategy in regard to the quarantining of those arrivals. There will be a change in this quarantine strategy in coming days and it will be intimated soon,” he added.

The Army will also provide security to the newly established quarantine centres run by Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and 3600 expatriates are to be quarantined in those centres, he said.

The Director General Health Service told that, the number of days one has to spend for quarantining would be amended soon considering possibilities for home-bound quarantining too. Meanwhile those who received both vaccines and spent two weeks in their places of origin are free to directly arrive in Sri Lanka and go home after PCR tests.

The meeting was also told that a consignment of 7 million Sputnik vaccines from Russia would be brought down to Sri Lanka soon. A total of 46 corpses of COVID-19 victims have been so far buried at Ottamavadi.

One more review meeting with all Task Force members and other stakeholders fighting against transmission of COVID-19 took place this afternoon (16) at the National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), co-chaired by General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of the Army and Head, NOCPCO and Medical Specialist and Director General of Health Services, Dr Asela Gunawardena.