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PCR tests compulsory

21 Apr 2020

 For community clusters and quarantine centres By Sarah Hannan The Government has increased the number of PCR tests conducted to identify Covid-19-positive individuals following continuous calls by the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) and several politicians of the country to increase the number of PCR tests. Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services Bhadrani Jayawardena, speaking to The Morning, said the Ministry has already started running PCR tests for home clusters once a person is confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 and the teams that are referred to quarantine centres as well. “We will increase the (number of) PCR tests to be conducted under the advice of the Epidemiology Unit as they are continuously observing the situation across the country. Given the sensitivity of the test results, just because the results are negative, it might not assure that they will not catch the virus later on. Therefore, we are trying to limit the groups that should be referred to testing,” she noted. Jayawardena further elaborated that it is more efficient to test a vulnerable group of people so that the test kits will not be wasted. Previously, only patients who showed symptoms were subjected to PCR tests. However at present, the health authorities also test the people who had come to contact with a person that was tested positive. With the assistance of the Army Intelligence Unit, Sri Lanka Police, and public health inspectors (PHIs), the Ministry of Health is able to trace up to five levels of contacts of a positive patient. These groups are placed under home quarantine and if the contacts are identified as persons who had close contact with the patient, they are referred to a quarantine centre. With the change of testing levels, the Ministry has been able to detect asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 over the past few days. PCR tests are now conducted for community clusters, home quarantine groups, and quarantine centres. “The best example is the community cluster that was detected from Bandaranayake Mawatha, Colombo 12 over the last two days. The main reason for the spread of the virus to up to 32 people from the area is that in a land area of 15 perches, about 62 houses are located and is inhabited by 230 persons,” Jayawardena elaborated. The first patient detected from the area was a lady who had travelled and returned from India on 15 March. It had taken over a month for her symptoms to surface. By that time, she had already moved a lot within the community and passed on the virus to her husband and child as well as 30 others from the area. “Testing clusters have returned good results as we have been able to identify even the asymptomatic persons and prevent further spread of Covid-19. The community isolation after the first patient is reported from a community has also helped us to have control over the situation and made it easier to test the people that came into close contact,” Jayawardena confirmed.

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