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Health guidelines and quarantine laws: A necessity to control Covid-19 spread

18 Sep 2021

  • Even 100% vaccination won’t control spread in society without precautions
  • PHIs continue to seek more powers under quarantine laws to crackdown on violators
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa Despite the high number of vaccinations administered in the country, health experts urged the Government to continue the strict enforcement of Covid-19 preventive guidelines and act against those who violate quarantine laws. While criticising the Government for focusing only on the vaccination drive, health experts explained that vaccination was not the sole solution to the pandemic, as no Covid-19 vaccine provides 100% protection against the virus. Public health inspectors (PHIs) too expressed concerns over the high rate of virus transmission within the community and warned of the possibility of new Covid-19 variants spreading rapidly if quarantine regulations are not strictly enforced. Vaccine alone insufficient Speaking to The Sunday Morning, World Health Organisation (WHO) Advisor, ruling party parliamentarian, and renowned virologist Prof. Tissa Vitharana stressed that unless the authorities take strict measures to implement the health guidelines and quarantine laws, the virus would keep spreading and mutating in the future as well. “Any virus keeps on mutating; this is especially so with the Covid-19 virus, which is an RNA virus. Vaccination is not the complete answer. A person can still get infected after getting fully vaccinated. Vaccines don’t prevent viruses from infecting other people. That process goes on even if you are 100% vaccinated. No vaccination gives 100% protection. Even Pfizer gives only 93% protection,” Prof. Vitharana explained. Therefore, even if the vaccination drive was completed, the virus would continue to spread in society unless strict health guidelines such as wearing facemasks, washing hands, and social/physical distancing are strictly implemented, he explained. “These rules must be strictly implemented, and the Health Ministry and the Government should introduce the necessary laws to cover activities that are not already covered by the existing quarantine laws or WHO guidelines,” he opined. Commenting further, the government MP, who is also the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), noted that the measures should be strictly enforced to ensure a person infected with the virus does not associate with a non-infected person in society. According to him, adhering to a scientifically accepted set of health guidelines as well as quarantine laws is important at present in order to minimise deaths and severe cases of Covid-19, as there has been community spread within the country, even though the Ministry of Health denied it last month. Besides taking the cluster approach to manage the spread of the virus, the Government should adopt a community-based approach, Prof. Vitarana further noted. A total of 10,968,195 Sri Lankans, accounting for 50% of the population, have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine while a total of 13,720,887 have received the first dose, according to statistics of the Epidemiology Unit as of Friday (17). According to Epidemiology Unit statistics, the total number of vaccines administered as the second jab as of Friday are 8,973,670 doses of Sinopharm, 949,105 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca, 758,282 doses of Moderna, 243,685 doses of Pfizer, and 43,453 doses of Sputnik V. The Government now aims to vaccinate 60% of the Sri Lankan population by mid-October, it is learnt. Tighter law enforcement Meanwhile, the PHIs issued a red alert on the spread of the Covid-19 virus within the country, as they claimed there could be more asymptomatic patients among society. They said the ongoing community spread was now out of the Government’s control and that it was a result of quarantine laws not being strictly enforced on violators. “Nobody respects the laws or the quarantine curfew currently being enforced, and the authorities also are not taking any measures to control or take legal action against those who violate those laws,” PHIs’ Union Secretary M. Baalasooriya told The Sunday Morning. “Sometimes, even after we paste the quarantine notice outside the house of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, they’d still go out of the house, get their work done, and come back home. This is because of the lack of proper action taken by those who were given the authority to do so. The PHIs are taking action, but when we go to court, since we don’t have proper authority, we get stuck and it then becomes a longer process,” he stressed. Warning that the situation would become worse if another Covid-19 variant enters the country, he said that when there is no control of the spread, there would be no end to these variants. The PHIU Secretary also stressed that the union had been requesting for additional powers under quarantine laws since last year, so that they could take action against those who violate the law. However, they are still waiting for this to take place. Baalasooriya also alleged that since there was no proper mechanism at garment factories to evaluate whether they were following the health guidelines, the virus was now rapidly spreading among those workers and, in turn, society. “We were informed that the factory management had asked the first contacts of Covid-19-positive employees to report to work three days after doing a rapid antigen test, which is against the health guidelines. Because of these incidents, the virus is spreading fast,” he stressed. Measures taken since the outbreak The Director General of Health Services (DGHS) was designated as the “Proper Authority” in respect of the whole of Sri Lanka via Gazette Extraordinary No. 2168/6 dated 25 March 2020, according to data available with the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). According to Regulation 1 of said gazette, the DGHS may delegate some of his powers to the medical officer of health (MOH); chairpersons of local authorities; medical officers in ports, airports, and in any military, naval, or air force establishment; and the district director of health services or the regional director of health services. However, the Attorney General (AG), in a letter addressed to the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) last year, had stated that the DGHS had delegated his powers as the Proper Authority to the Acting IGP. Although this letter had been used to sanction the legitimacy of several actions carried out by the Police as part of the Covid-19 response, it is not clear under what legal provisions and/or regulations the powers of the Proper Authority have been delegated to the Acting IGP. In October last year, the Ministry of Health took measures to issue a special gazette notification on new guidelines, which included the implementation of key Covid-19 health and safety measures such as social distancing in public places and wearing facemasks. The gazette notification, which was signed by then Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi, also included Covid-19 prevention and control guidelines for workplaces and businesses. Accordingly, everyone who enters workplaces and businesses must wear a facemask at all times and maintain a physical distance of not less than one metre between two people; the body temperature of each person should be measured before entering the workplace; adequate hand washing facilities with antiseptic liquid should be provided; and records of the name, identity card number, and contact information of each entrant should be maintained. In addition, violators of these guidelines could be charged with a fine not exceeding Rs. 10,000 or six months’ imprisonment. According to data available with the CPA, so far, four extraordinary gazette notifications had been published by the Government. They are (i) Gazette Extraordinary No. 2167/18 published on Friday, 20 March 2020, declaring Covid-19 a quarantinable disease for the purposes of the existing Quarantine Regulations passed under the Ordinance in 1925 and 1960, making these regulations applicable to procedures taken in relation to Covid-19; (ii) Gazette Extraordinary No. 2168/6 of Wednesday, 25 March 2020, defining the “Proper Authority” (the DGHS) and a diseased locality; (iii) Gazette Extraordinary No. 2170/8 of Saturday, 11 April 2020, elaborating on the mandatory cremation of persons who die of Covid-19; (iv) and Gazette Extraordinary No. 2197/25 of Thursday, 15 October 2020, elaborating on restriction of movement and guidelines to be followed in public places. In addition, a number of Covid-related guidelines and circulars had been issued by the Ministry of Health since the outbreak of the pandemic early last year. While health experts have urged the Government to strictly enforce the health guidelines to control the pandemic, a request made by the tourism sector to consider relaxing certain preventive measures for fully vaccinated tourists was heavily criticised recently. Yet, as the request came from a state institution, it raised concerns among the public as to whether the Government would give it the green light. However, when The Sunday Morning contacted Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, he assured that the Government would not relax internationally imposed restrictions and stated it was still considering the request made by the tourism sector. “Certain guidelines have been imposed by international agencies and some by the WHO, to which we abide by as a country,” he noted. He further noted that the authorities would be able to control the spread of the virus at present and added that the aim of the Ministry was to minimise the number of deaths and severe cases.


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