FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 WITH ARMY PARTICIPATION IN FULL SWING

The Army’s all time preparedness and handy alertness give witness to what this mammoth organization is all about and what its capacity stands for. The most recent case in point was its mechanism that went into quick operation, no sooner than the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was announced. This story starts with the military taking the responsibility for quarantining all the 33 Sri Lankan students who were brought down from Wuhan city in China to Sri Lanka on a Presidential directive.

Since that arrangement onwards, Army troops in collaboration with sister services and health professionals have been engaged in a remarkably challenging task of netting, screening, transporting, housing and quarantining vulnerable individuals as well as infected ones in respective quarantine centres and hospitals. The plain fact is that even the WHO as recent as last month acknowledged that Sri Lanka had tackled the situation much better than other countries, for which the larger share of the credit goes to all military personnel, still continuing with their preventive measures.

HE the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted the military be involved in tackling this alarming outbreak as the operational machinery swung into action by mobilizing the Tri-forces to counter the spread of the virus after the Chief of the Defence Staff and Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva was appointed by HE the President as the Head of the National Operation Centre for COVID-19 Outbreak and also by nominating him to be a member in the Presidential Task Force for the same purpose. The risky but this arduous national task which needs an enormous degree of proper planning, implementation, understanding, precautions , health safety measures and post-surveillance monitoring is currently in full swing under the able guidance of the Head of the NOCPCO, amply supported by Health authorities and all other stakeholders.

It is believed that dedicated troops, irrespective of the complex and challenging nature of the emergence of the second cluster of infected persons would overcome this challenge too within a short period with the help of health-conscious public in the country since everyone in the Army is determined to arrest the fast spreading situation with all possible force for the greater benefit of our society and all Sri Lankans.