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Ukrainian tourists testing positive: Pilot project to continue

31 Dec 2020

  • Tourism Ministry ‘aware of the risks’ 

  By Hiranyada Dewasiri   The pilot project to fly down tourists to the country under special health guidelines will continue despite three Ukranian tourists who arrived on Monday (28) testing positive for Covid-19 yesterday (30), The Morning learnt.  When contacted yesterday, National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) Head and Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said that this was anticipated by the authorities when the decision was taken to bring in tourists from Ukraine. “This is only one incident. We anticipated that there could be one or two Covid patients coming in. We had our contingencies so it was a matter of activating our plans – Plan A, or Plan B. It does not mean that we should suspend this project. Of course, if we bring in 100 and find that 90 are positive then it is a different story, but at the moment, we have brought in about 300 and of that, only about 1% have tested positive,” he told The Morning. When asked for confirmation on whether this would force the Government to abort this project, the Army Commander categorically stated that there are no such plans. “We have no intention of stopping. What we want is to ensure that it will not spread to society. We are doing this as a pilot project to see how best we could manage tourism in the future. There are a lot of people suffering without tourism. If the project is not doing well, we will not continue, but as of now, we don’t anticipate a big issue.” The pilot project was launched on 28 December and will run till 19 January. Ministry of Tourism Media Secretary Pradeep Anura Kumara told The Morning yesterday that Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga was already aware of the risks and was fully prepared, adding that the programme abides by the safety guidelines set out by health authorities. “There is no need to halt the welcoming of tourists into the country as they will not be mingling with the public at any point,” Kumara said.  The tourists who tested positive are currently being treated at facilities set up in hotel premises while their close associates are being isolated and tested. “The ministry staff, dancing troupe, and other officials maintained distance during our interactions with the tourists at the welcoming event. Everyone present will be sent to quarantine if health authorities find it necessary,” Kumara said. It is learnt that the tourists who arrived in Sri Lanka for a 10-day tour will have to stay for longer if they test positive and will receive treatment during this time.  The flight carrying tourists that arrived from Ukraine was the first in a series of activities to restart Sri Lanka’s tourism industry that ground to a halt following the closing down of airports due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March. Ukraine, an Eastern European country with a population of 42 million people, passed the one million mark for Covid-19 positive cases on 24 December and the Ukrainian Prime Minister plans to impose tight nationwide lockdowns in January to stop the rapid spread of the virus.  While Sri Lanka has banned travel from the UK following the detection of a new and potentially more dangerous variant of Covid-19 being detected in the country, Ukraine is yet to ban travel from the UK.


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