Children are not being kept alone

As Sri Lanka faced the second wave, the Sunday Times looked at ground-level logistics in taking positive people to either hospitals or intermediate care centres.

Many distraught people feared that children would be separated from their parents especially their mothers, while others were concerned that they would be taken far away from home.

Several Medical Officers of Health (MOHs) assured that mothers would be given the option of taking small children with them. The system was for each MOH area to await the list of positive people in their areas, telephone each person and tell him/her to be ready with a bag packed to be taken to these institutions. Thereafter, an ambulance would go around picking them up.

Some MOHs conceded that depending on the number of positive people in their areas, the ambulance could get late and sometimes arrive at homes in the night.

“There may have been some issues earlier, but we are trying to correct these,” one MOH said. Gradually, the processes were being ironed out, the Sunday Times learnt, with many who were in intermediate care centres confirming that they were comfortable and had adequate food and facilities.

“Our first RT-PCR tests were taken on October 5 and we were asked to go home. Then on the same day we were asked to be ready and I was taken to a Galle quarantine centre by the police and the army, while my family was taken to one in Matara,” said Deepika Ranasinghe (39), an employee of the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda, who lives in Marapola with her 40-year-old husband and four children – three sons and a daughter aged 19,11, 9 and 15 respectively.

Things happened quickly thereafter – the Marapola Public Health Inspector (PHI) had called her on the night of October 7 to inform her that she was positive and to tell the army that.

In the quarantine centre, there were three others who were also Brandix employees. When Deepika tested positive, she was isolated from the others. Around 12.30 p.m. on October 8, she was taken to the Neville Fernando Hospital with seven other patients, treated and discharged from there on October 25, after which she went home.

“Army eka apita hondata salakuwa. Kisi prashnayak thibbeh na,” she said, explaining that the army treated them well.

Her nine-year-old son who was in quarantine tested positive on October 28, even though his first test was negative, and was sent to the Minuwangoda Hospital so that she could stay with him.

“On November 1, a vehicle was sent to take me to the hospital accompanied by two PHIs, while my son was transferred from Matara to Minuwangoda by the army,” she says.

Deepika says that although they have no physical contact at the hospital as they are being kept in isolation, her son has the comfort of having her close by.

The other members of her family are now at home having completed quarantine at Matara but are in home quarantine till November 15.

(See the statement of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on the quarantining process on our website sundaytimes.lk)