SL SUCCESSFULLY TESTED 5,000 CASES OF SUSPECTED COVID-19

Sri Lanka successfully tested all suspected cases of Covid-19 (nearly 5, 000) by yesterday. ‘Polymerase Chain Reaction’ (PCR) Tests had been undertaken to detect victims of the viral infection, Director General Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe said.

Dr. Jasinghe said, at the moment 13 hospitals had laboratory facilities in addition to nearly 50 university laboratories to conduct PCR tests. He added the Anuradhapura and Batticaloa hospitals would be provided with the facility within the next few days.

“The PCR test is the best scientific method available to detect a Covid-19 infected patient. Fortunately we began the testing of suspected cases early, isolated and provided medical care to those testing positive.

“By taking preventive measures and providing medical care to patients at specially-built hospitals at the correct time, we have been able to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control and restrict the number of deaths to 7 and the number of infected patients to 238,” Dr. Jasinghe stressed.

Dr. Jasinghe said that a PCR test would be carried out only on those recommended for the test by a medical specialist and there would be no random tests.

He added all those testing positive were those who had closely associated with patients infected with the coronavirus infection.

There were no new detections of Covid-19 victims from any part of the country by noon yesterday.

Consultant Physician of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) Dr. Eranga Narangoda said four patients had fully recovered and were discharged from the NIID and another two were expected to be discharged by afternoon if they were tested negative.

District-wise, there were 49 patients with viral infections in hospitals in the District of Colombo yesterday,

45 in Kalutara, 35 in Puttalam, 28 in Gampaha, 16 in Jaffna, seven in Kandy, five in Ratnapura, two each in Kurunegala, Matara, Kalmunai and Kegalle, one each in Galle, Batticaloa, Vavuniya and Badulla Districts. The total number of those under hospital treatment stood at at 238, he said.

Meanwhile, Army Commander

Lt. General Shavendra Silva said 40 individuals from Colombo and Ja-ela were sent for quarantine at Punanai and added another 161were released from quarantine centres after undergoing a spell of 14 days quarantine.

Twenty policemen, attached to the Keselwatta Police station Colombo North, have been sent to a quarantine centre in Attidiya, after it was revealed that they had come into contact with a person who was a close associate of the drug addict who tested positive for Covid-19, at Ja-ela.

The policemen had come into contact with the man when he was arrested for violating curfew, yesterday, at Saunders’s Place, Pettah.

Later, it was discovered that he was also an associate of the Covid-19 patient found in Ja-ela.

This man, too, was a drug addict working as a cleaner, at Keselwatta. Police have also sent a large number of people, he associated with, into quarantine.

Meanwhile, 30 employees of the Welisara Chest Hospital were sent to two quarantine centres at Katunayake after it was found that a cleaner at the hospital had been in association with a Covid-19 victim detected at Suduwella, Ja–ela by the intelligence arm of the Sri Lanka Air Force.

The Air Force rounded up 28 men and women from Suduwella on April 9th and one of them tested positive to the viral infection. All others except the Covid-19 victim were sent to the Oluvil quarantine centre while the patient was sent to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID).

Among the 30 sent into quarantine from the Welisara Chest Hospital, 24 cleaners have been referred to the quarantine centre at Katunayake and four nurses and two members of the minor staff have been sent to the temporary quarantine centre at the Dolphin Hotel.