Army Chief: Areas outside Gampaha, too, at risk

Alleged delay in responding to corona alert under probe

Authorities probing devastating coronavirus eruption at the Brandix apparel factory are inquiring into the alleged delay on the part of the Minuwangoda MOH Office to respond after Brandix in late September brought to its notice an unusual number of workers falling sick.

The Island 

learns that the delay was partly due to the transfer of the MoH shortly before the coronavirus eruption. However, MoH Dompe had been directed to oversee Minuwangoda, in addition to those already assigned for duties at Minuwangoda.

Sources said that all aspects were being inquired into including possible oversights. It was a collective failure on the part of the local apparatus rather than an individual, they added.

However, they hadn’t been able to find out how a coronavirus eruption took place at the Brandix facility, sources said.

 Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera told the media early this week that it would be a very difficult task to identify who had got infected first among the Brandix workers.

The number of infections could be several thousand although approximately 1,100 persons had tested positive so far, vast majority of them Brandix employees. Police headquarters said that the person who supplied food to the Minuwangoda police station, too, had tested positive. The police identified his son as a Brandix worker. Later, nearly 100 officers and men attached to Minuwangoda police had been subjected to RT PCR tests while services were suspended, temporarily.

Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva appearing on Derana yesterday morning said that only 48 Sri Lankans working at Brandix facility in India had been brought back although there were reports of 60 returnees. Responding to Derana anchor, Chatura Alwis, the Army Chief, who is also in charge of Covid Task Force, said that all of them had been quarantined at a hotel in Kosgoda and made to undergo to RT -PCR tests. Asked who conducted the tests, Lt. Gen. Silva said that the procedures were followed though he couldn’t respond to that query. Subsequently, Chathura Alwis, having checked with Brandix revealed that tests had been conducted by Durdens Hospital.

 The Army Chief said that as detections had been made in many areas outside the Gampaha District, those living in areas outside the high risk region covered by continuing police curfew should be cautious. Those living in areas outside Gampaha too faced serious risk, the Army Chief warned. So far, the curfew covered only the Gampaha District.

On Wednesday night, a person while being moved by the Army to a quarantine facility died of a heart attack.

Police spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana told Derana some of those high risk groups were yet to voluntarily submit themselves for RT PCR tests. (SF)