‘Indian variant already at community transmission level here’

By Rathindra Kuruwita 

The community transmission of the Indian variant had begun in Sri Lanka because the current COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne has been traced to a Sri Lankan carrying the variant, Executive Director of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya said yesterday.

The Australian media earlier reported that officials had found a genomic link between a returned traveller who entered the state of Victoria hotel quarantine system on May 8 and the West Melbourne cluster.

 “The traveller arrived from Sri Lanka on May 8 and tested positive the same day before being transferred from the Novotel Ibis quarantine hotel to the Holiday Inn health hotel May 14. He completed his quarantine and was released on May 23,” News.com.au reported.

 Dr. Rannan-Eliya said that it was likely that the passenger was infected in Sri Lanka.

 The IHP Executive Director said there were three serious flaws in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 management strategy: inadequate PCR testing, underfunded genomic sequencing that doesn’t provide the data necessary to make informed decisions and relaxing the restrictions for those arriving Sri Lanka without a proper risk assessment.”