Coronavirus: Contingency plan in place
Be honest about the country of origin when you return, requests Health DG to Sri Lankans
Sri Lanka has a contingency plan covering all aspects to meet the threat from the new coronavirus and the health authorities are scaling it up regularly. This assurance came from the DirectorGeneral (DG) of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, as he urged all Sri Lankans to be honest and forthright about the country of origin if they have returned from abroad, as otherwise they may endanger everyone else.
“Be honest and tell us if you have returned from a COVID-19 affected country. We will never-ever deny healthcare to anyone, but people should not endanger others,” he said.
Dr. Jasinghe cited the saga in Anuradhapura this week, where a family which had recently returned from Italy had taken their child to a General Practitioner ( GP) for treatment of an upper respiratory infection. The father and mother had hidden the fact that they had come back from Italy and only disclosed this just as they were about to leave with the medication. The GP had then advised them to go to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital immediately. Here too they had not informed the hospital authorities of their Italian connection, doing so only when the condition of the child became slightly bad, it is learnt.
See the repercussions of such behaviour, said Dr. Jasinghe, as the child had been in a normal ward and was not kept in isolation until the parents revealed their links to Italy. It was only then that the child was moved into the isolation area. The test for COVID19 on the child was negative but if it had been otherwise, such non-disclosure would have endangered so many others.
The DG also ticked off the main points in Sri Lanka’s contingency plan:
Prevention of the introduction of the new coronavirus infection to Sri Lanka through surveillance and awareness
Prevention of community (local) trans
mission if it comes to Sri Lanka
Treatment
Readiness for any eventuality
“Currently, we have a National
Committee, a Technical Committee and an Action Committee working on the threat posed by the new coronavirus,” he said, adding that the Technical and Action Committees are almost similar.
When asked whether the Action Committee has all the relevant clinical stakeholders, he said it does and includes a Clinical Virologist as well as a Microbiologist who is not a medical doctor.
On Friday, Dr. Jasinghe briefed the diplomatic corp. at a meeting which included Foreign Affairs Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Foreign Affairs Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha. He had explained the dynamics in Sri Lanka in relation to the global situation.
On how Sri Lanka has picked up Italy, South Korea and Iran for close tracking of those who return from these countries or come in as tourists, he said that the tool used is risk assessment of a country in relation to Sri Lanka with the focus being travel, business and tourism.
“Even though many people may not be coming here from Iran, it has come into the equation because of the high number of people affected by COVID-19 there,” he said, pointing out that when the Health Ministry announced that it was planning to quarantine people coming from highrisk countries, there was a drastic drop in arrivals but when it gave a grace period as required under the International Health Regulations (IHR), it changed but those coming in mainly are Sri Lankans as opposed to tourists.
The arrivals from South Korea on March 3 were 175 Sri Lankans and only 10 foreigners, while from Italy there were 310 Sri Lankans and only 28 foreigners, whereas earlier there would have been a balance between Sri Lankans and foreigners.
Dr. Jasinghe said that the designated hospitals are maintaining isolation units
and the Health Ministry is hoping to keep this readiness measures long term. “We have drawn up plans and estimates for infrastructure and equipment to make them permanent facilities.”
There are 14 suspected cases, according to the Epidemiology Unit, in several of
the designated hospitals. They are: National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) – 5; Kurunegala Teaching Hospital – 3; Ratnapura Teaching Hospital – 2; Badulla Provincial General Hospital – 2; Karapitiya Teaching Hospital – 1; and Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital - 1.
The other designated hospitals are the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL); the Kandy National Hospital; the Ragama, Jaffna and Batticaloa Teaching Hospitals; the Negombo and Gampaha District General Hospitals; the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children, Colombo; and the De Soysa Hospital for Women, Colombo.
Meanwhile, no passengers from cruise ships are being allowed to disembark at Sri Lankan ports from this week until further notice, said the Chief Manager Communications of the Sri Lanka Ports’ Authority, Nalin Aponso.
While ‘ MSC Splendida’ arrived on March 3 with 3,959 passengers and 1,325 crew members, no one was allowed to disembark and the same would apply to ‘Azamara Quest’ and ‘Seabourn Sojourn’ due today (March 8) with 724 passengers and 380 crew members and 540 passengers and 330 crew members respectively, he said.
Mr. Aponso added that cargo ships, however, would follow the usual procedure and crew disembarkation allowed but with strict screening.