Freedom Day events with COVID health guidelines

The 74th Independence Day celebration will be held at the Independence square in Colombo keeping with COVID-19 health guidelines, officials said.

Due to the health restrictions, the seating arrangements will only be for Ministers, Parliamentarians and other delegates who have confirmed their participation with the Independence Day Organising Committee. More than 2500 seats have been arranged, said Home Affairs State Ministry Secretary N. H. M. Chitrananda.

He said the entire celebration would be managed according to the COVID-19 health guidelines and all members of the security forces and dancing troops are now in a bio-bubble.

“A total of 6,352 personnel from the Tri-forces, the Police, the Special Task Force and the Civil Defence Force are participating in the event. There are also 431 members attached to the dancing troops,” he said.

Mr. Chitrananda said students would undergo several antigen tests during the rehearsals and all of them would be able to attend the celebration after completing the required time in quarantine under the bio-bubble concept.

The Colombo Municipal Council had begun disinfecting the Independence Square and its surroundings. There will be four rehearsals before the celebration.

“Armed forces officers who will be participating in the celebration are already in a COVID-19 bio-bubble system to prevent the virus from spreading. All participating officers are already located in separate facilities to avoid any outside contact, and there are regularly tested for COVID-19,” said Brig. Nilantha Premaratne, the Army Director of Media.

Due to health constraints, the Sri Lanka Air Force would minimise the number of officers participating in the parade, and the personnel would only be trained at the base where they are now stationed, Air Force Spokesman Dushan Wijesinghe said.

"We are already conducting daily rapid antigen tests, and we will do a PCR test for the participants before the celebration," Group Captain Wijesinghe said.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry's Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Hemantha Herath said the Ministry had not published specific health guidelines for the Independence Day celebration, and all previous guidelines were applicable.