Lab technologists allege disastrous health policies have led to spread of Omicron here

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Disastrous policies followed by the Health Ministry during the last few months has led to the spread of Omicron cases in the country, College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS) President, Ravi Kumudesh told The Island yesterday. Even though it was obvious that a number of people with Omicron had arrived in Sri Lanka, testing at the airport had not been made more stringent, he said.

“Most passengers entering the country are not tested. We warned that due to the lax testing at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), there was a strong possibility of any new variant of COVID-19 entering the country. We said that even a travel ban would be useless unless testing was ramped up,” Kumudesh said.

PCR tests were not conducted on passengers on arrival and that it was likely that even those not fully vaccinated were entering the country. “Gene sequencing in respect of those infected with COVID inside the country was at a minimal level, and therefore, there is no way we can find out whether a new variant has entered the country and spread until it is too late”, Kumudesh said.

Health officials were detecting Omicron cases in various parts of the country, Kumudesh said. It was an indication that a PCR test, taken a few days before arriving here, or a vaccination card showing that a person had been double jabbed were not a reason for stopping tests at the airport, Kumudesh said.

“There are two state-of-the-art labs at the BIA, but no tests are done there. The government also tried to discourage the University of Sri Jayewardenepura from being involved in gene sequencing. These were done to prevent people from knowing that Omicron was here. Now the cat is out of the bag and soon we will see the consequences of the wrong decisions,” the CMLS President said.