Ten Covid-19 infected Excise officers in treatment centres

The Excise Department Emergency Operations Room at the department’s head office will further be out of bounds for the public, as ten Excise officials in countrywide stations have been tested positive for Covid19 presently.

The Department shut down its Emergency Ops Room situated at the Excise Headquarters on Cotta Road, Rajagiriya, which is enabled with the public hotline of 1913, since April 12th., as three of its officers were found positive with Covid-19.

Departmental Spokesperson Commissioner Kapila Kumarasinghe told the Daily Mirror the three officers had voluntarily informed the department about their illness on April 09 and quick precaution could be taken as a result, without the risk of further spread of the disease.

With the first-hand information received from these said officers another seven officers from several countrywide Excise stations including the Southern Province Assistant

Commissioner’s Office were found to be positive in no time.

All these officers had been sent to respective treatment centres where they are being treated at present and none of their condition was found to be critical.

The Department has however, with the explicit instructions of Excise Commissioner General M. J. Gunasiri taken steps to isolate the office rooms, which were occupied by the infected officers, including the Emergency Ops Room for a period of 14 days until April 23rd. Meanwhile, the first level contacts of these officers including their family members had been instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days too, the sources said.

Since the hotline for the Emergency Ops Room 1913 is temporarily dysfunctional, the Excise Department introduced the following telephone numbers 071 6345291, 071 3108507 and 071 8122333 last week for the public to supply information related to instances of violations of the Excise law.