He said that while the first Covid-19 patient, a Chinese female was detected on January 27th and on March 11th the first Sri Lankan patient was detected. So far the data of 147 patients have been analysed and the health authorities, doctors and hospital staff have rendered a huge service in caring for the infected. The Tri-Forces led by the Sri Lanka Army have directly engaged in the quarantine process while the Police Department have contributed in streamlining the self-quarantine process, said DIG Ajith Rohana.
He said it is a collective effort by all the above parties and once the infected person is identified he is isolated or sent for treatment. Then the group which had associated with this patient is identified, including those they may have had contact with. The DIG said that this task is entrusted to the State Intelligence Service.
After the first patient was discovered, more Covid-19 positive patients were detected from Mattegoda, Marawila, Nugegoda, Beruwala, Dehiwala, Colombo-8, Wennappuwa, Ja-Ela, Ratmalana, Akurana, Nattandiya, Colombo-4, Atalugama, Bandaragama, Puttalam, Wellampitiya, another from Beruwala and Jaffna.All those 145 detected have had some connection with the earlier identified patients. Recently there were 20 patients who tested positive and they had direct contact with a person who had arrived in the country Indonesia who had tested positive, DIG Ajith Rohana stated. This group was in quarantine by the time they tested positive and those detected from Jaffna were also those who had attended the prayer service in Jaffna and were also in quarantine.
He also stated that so far Sri Lanka has not come to the community spreading stage.
All those detected later had some connection with the above mentioned 19 places and it is due to the contribution of the intelligence sources that the authorities were able to quickly identify these cases and isolate them to prevent the Coronavirus spreading further among communities.
