NOCPCO Task Force Takes up Current COVID-19 Prevention Roles for Discussion

One more round of the Task Force meeting of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID -19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) got underway this afternoon (11) at Rajagiriya, headed by General Shavendra Silva, Head NOCPCO, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army and the Medical Specialist, Dr Asela Gunwardena, Director General of Health Services.

General Shavendra Silva summed up developments as regards control measures of COVID-19 across the country in the past few days at first and briefed the gathering on the status quo of the transmission, control measures and future projections, etc.

Afterwards, he stated about the planned mobile vaccination process of the disabled, sick, handicapped, people with special needs and elderly people in the Colombo District. "10 vehicles including ambulances have been allocated for this process and each vehicle, consists of four members including a nurse, assistant, and a data operator, draped in safety overalls & PPE. The doctor with an ambulance on standby will coordinate with all vehicles. We will start this mobile service from the Army headquarters tomorrow morning (12). Similarly, other vaccination programmes are concurrently in progress around the country," he added.

"The Task Force has also been criticized in the last few days, but all have the right to express their views in the country. We don’t want to force anyone for immunization and it is more or less a voluntary move. According to some intelligence, we got to know that a person is already ready to go to the Human Rights Commission claiming that he was subjected to forced inoculation. Of course, all have the right to stick to their own opinions which could be different in nature and different from one another which could also be attributed to different psychological stances," he added.

"More than 15 m doses have already been vaccinated in the country.The numbers are more than what we expected but we are in a capable position to provide the vaccination, " General Shavendra Silva remarked.

Meanwhile, the Army Chief mentioned about corpses in hospital mortuaries. "We have 130 dead bodies in several places as some pictures on viral claimed. We had an issue but we sorted it out. We had some dead bodies remaining in mortuaries for more than one year. Yesterday, we started to clear all of them. Now, the Army is in operation to dispose them and some 40 plus such unclaimed dead bodies were sent to Ottamawadi for burials after the greenlight of judicial provisions was received. These bodies are not of all who died of COVID but due to different chronic illnesses," he pointed out.

The DGHS and other attendees also voiced their concerns on sustained health practices, vaccination drive, international scenario, availability of hospital facilities, etc.

Source: www.army.lk