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Western Province to be opened up on phased basis from early next month
View(s):The Western Province will be opened up on a phased basis from early next month with priority being given to resuming work at business establishments.
This comes as the government gradually eases off restrictions in the rest of the country from next week under its plans to reactivate the economy.
The detailed plans, including health guidelines to be implemented, were being worked out by the Covid 19 Presidential Task Force in consultation with the health authorities.
Health Ministry Secretary Badhrani Jayawardena told the Sunday Times the opening of the Western Province was being carefully planned with precautions in hand and initially only a limited operations would be allowed, focusing on economic activities including work at Free Trade Zone factories .
As a prelude to the opening of the Western Province, the public sector will begin internal work arrangements from next week onwards by bringing a limited number of workers to government departments and ministries.
“We are planning to bring about 20 percent of the work force in the Western Province by providing them special transport to carry out the internal work without opening up the offices for the people,” Public Administration Ministry Secretary S. Hettiaarachchi told the Sunday Times.
He said flexible working hours where different batches would be working at different times to reduce the overcrowding of offices would be among the plans when the offices were opened to the people.
However, in provinces where the curfew would be relaxed from tomorrow, he said he was expecting a 50 percent turnout of public officials initially and an increase thereafter.
As of last afternoon, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 were 248, while 77 have recovered and 164 are receiving treatment. The 248 confirmed cases include the Chinese woman tourist diagnosed with the virus in late January. She recovered and left for home. Seven people have died of the disease so far.
A meeting was also held on Friday at the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 to formulate a strategy to exit from the current situation and measures that should be adopted in the future to arrest the transmission of the virus, with scientific updates from experts.
In another development, Health Services Director-General Dr. Anil Jasinghe declared that decisions about who should undergo RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription- Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing should be made on a scientific basis and on expert advice. These tests could not be performed on requests made by the people or organisations. Taking into consideration the time, money and expertise needed to conduct these tests, currently they were being done among those at high-risk of being infected and their contacts, he said.
The DG also said that no circular had been issued to stop routine surgical operations in public hospitals.
Meanwhile, the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) has announced that tenders would be opened from tomorrow to buy pharmaceutical and surgical consumer goods.