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Dengue workers stay out of Covid work

02 Jun 2021

  • Fought pandemic for one year, still not permanent: Association

By Pamodi Waravita   The All Ceylon Dengue Prevention Assistants Association (ACDPAA) is continuing its ongoing trade union action over not being made permanent in their positions despite being involved in assisting in Covid-19 pandemic prevention efforts. Speaking to The Morning, ACDPAA Chairman R. Perera said that the Association has entered into trade union action since 31 May and have therefore withdrawn from Covid-19 prevention activities. “We decided to take trade union action as we have worked for the past year on Covid-19 prevention activities when it is not even in our mandate, in the hope that we would be made permanent workers. That has not happened yet,” said Perera. Perera further said that the workers in the Association receive only a daily stipend of Rs. 733 in their usual dengue prevention activities, which over the past year has increasingly been rendering assistance towards Covid-19 prevention. At present, owing to the South-West Monsoon season, there is an increased risk of dengue. Speaking to the media, the National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU) Director Dr. Aruna Jayasekara said that the risk of dengue is higher in the months of June and July due to the South-West Monsoon, noting that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, more rigorous dengue control activities such as house inspections cannot be carried out by the health sector workers. NCDU Consultant Community Physician Dr. Nimalka Pannilahetti said that there has been an increase in cases in May, with 766 cases being reported. “In 2020, there was a significant decrease in the cases being reported in Colombo during the months of May, June, and July. There were only about 66 cases in those three months last year while in 2018 and 2019, there were about 400 cases being reported in those months. However, this year again, as of May, there have been 381 cases reported in Colombo alone. We urge the public to continue to keep the environment around them clean in order to prevent the outbreak of more dengue cases,” said Dr. Pannilahetti. She further said that the Western Province, and the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, and Galle are at a higher risk of experiencing dengue cases.


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