‘We were not aware of the Russians being in the Matara area’

“We weren’t aware that the Russians were coming to a hotel in the Matara area. There is a problem there because any aircraft or aviation person can go into any hotel in the country; which hotel is chosen is on the decision of an aircraft or aviation person,” said Matara’s Medical Officer of Health (MOH), Dr. Achala Gamaathige when contacted by the Sunday Times.

“During their stay, however, the MOH office has to be informed and such crew members have to stay in their hotel. They have to follow our instructions but we weren’t aware that they were here,” she said, explaining that there are no hotel or state- run quarantine centres in the Matara Municipal Council area.

Referring to the procedure that should be followed, Dr. Gamaathige said that someone from the airport should inform the MOH, beforehand, that people such as these were coming into a hotel. However, nothing like this happened and that is what led to this situation.

When told that the hotel had confirmed to the Sunday Times that it had informed the PHI, she said: “Actually they didn’t inform us, neither the PHI nor MOH, unfortunately. Even the hotel, as it falls under our municipal area, has the responsibility to inform us of such people coming to stay in their hotel.”

The hotel or airport has to first inform the MOH before the guests come for their stay and then the MOH will instruct the PHI to see if those procedures are followed, she said.

Dr. Gamaathige added that around 100 people including the hotel staff, three-wheel drivers, van drivers, their families and others from Matara town are in quarantine. Even though the Russian was negative, since they (the Russians) had come from abroad, there is a possibility that the virus was in their body without their knowledge due to its incubation period. “So we are taking extra precautions. Except for the three-wheel drivers, everyone else was placed in home quarantine.”

Meanwhile, other public health sources at ground level in Matara when asked about the incident involving the Russians said that they were not informed about it and they did not know anything about this particular stay.

The source said that they receive calls from various hotels these days to seek permission regarding functions, events etc. “I’m not sure whether this particular hotel has called us or not, but there are six to seven PHIs on duty here and none of us was informed about a situation like this.”