News
Don’t open BIA until virus settles down abroad, urge experts
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 situation is under control so far, but serious consideration needs to be given before a decision is taken to open the main entry-points of the country, particularly the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, many health experts said.
The strong assurances that community transmission has not started in the country came as the number-affected by COVID-19 jumped the 1,000 mark, pushed up by the cluster of navy personnel and their contacts hit by the virus.
Dr. Hemantha Herath
As of May 20, the total number of ‘confirmed’ COVID-19 cases was 1,027, with 584 recoveries and 9 deaths.
The second wave may come with all its virulence if we rush to open the airport, while the COVID-19 infection is rampant across the world, the experts said, looking at a scenario of opening the airport now and allowing 4,000-5,000 people in.
Before COVID-19, there were more than 10,000-15,000 people entering Sri Lanka through the BIA. For argument’s sake, if there are 4,000 arrivals per day, how will we quarantine them, was the concern expressed by many.
Within the country at present, there are no major issues and no community transmission, said the Health Ministry’s National Coordinator for Disaster Management, Dr. Hemantha Herath who is heading the operational and monitoring cell, the ‘Health Emergency Operations Centre’, to check the pulse at different healthcare levels.
“We have been entrusted with inquiring into the progress of the relaxation of the lockdown and gradual opening of the country,” said Dr. Herath in an interview with the Sunday Times on Wednesday.
The centre is gathering crucial data by contacting different healthcare levels such as all 25 Regional Directors of Health (one in each district), Directors of major hospitals and random samples of Medical Officers of Health (MOHs) and small hospitals at grass-root level.
“This allows us to get an overall picture of what is happening,” he said, showing the Sunday Times a Monitoring Matrix which is filled up through a set of questions. These questions cover overall social distancing; transport; supermarkets/pharmacies; marketplaces; workplaces; hospitals; and immunisation/antenatal/child clinics.
We see at the end of April how the red-flag triggering areas have now turned green, with several concerns being sorted out and Dr. Herath explains that ‘red’ indicates ‘not that satisfactory’ and ‘green’ ‘satisfactory’.
The operational and monitoring cell also acts as a channel to take the concerns at ground level to the centre. Its members are on the phone every Tuesday contacting the Regional Directors of Health and every Thursday the hospitals.
Many sources stressed that to prevent a second wave of the virus engulfing Sri Lanka, there is a need to delay opening the airport. The probability of getting the next wave would be high if several countries are having high numbers and low if the numbers are well-controlled in other countries worldwide.
“We may not be able to open the airport for some countries and ban others coming in. So for the long-term benefit of Sri Lanka, it would be best to keep the BIA closed until the virus curve is flattened in other countries as well,” they added.
| Member states seek a review of COVID-19 situ, probe on what happened in China and examination of good, bad & ugly of national responses | |
| An evaluation “to review experience gained and lessons learned and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response” would start at the earliest appropriate moment, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly on Tuesday. This followed the adoption by consensus of a resolution, co-sponsored by more than 130 of the 194 member states, which called for an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the international response – including but not limited to WHO’s performance. Among other goals, the WHO is to probe what happened in China late last year, both the biomedical chain of infection and the Chinese concealment, as well as examine the good, bad and ugly of national responses. The 73rd World Health Assembly was the first in WHO history to be held virtually from Geneva.
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Pera’s Vet Medicine Faculty sets up qRT-PCR testing facilities
Pets affected by virus in other countries have got it from their owners, so don’t believe rumours, says Dr. Niranjala de Silva
The Peradeniya University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science has set up qRT-PCR (qualitative Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing for COVID-19 not only for animals but also for humans, the Sunday Times learns.
In resource-limited settings, we must give priority to people but if the need arises we can do the qRT-PCR test for animals too, the Sri Lanka Veterinary Association President, Dr. Niranjala de Silva, told the Sunday Times, adding that the faculty has drawn up some guidelines as no guidelines were available.
With regard to the new coronavirus, she pointed out that there is no clear scientific evidence so far that it originated from an animal species and that it was a zoonotic disease. It has still not been established whether it came from bats or whether pangolins were an intermediary host. All animals which had reportedly contracted the virus recently had got it from humans and not the other way round.
The latest reports were of two dogs in Hong Kong contracting COVID-19 from their owners. Earlier, a cat in Belgium was found to have got the illness from its owner, while four Malayan tigers and three African lions in the Bronx Zoo in New York City, America, had reportedly contracted it from their handlers.
Even the OIE (the World Organisation for Animal Health) has been specific that humans have given the virus to animals, said Dr. de Silva, urging people not to believe rumours as this could result in many pets being discarded and abandoned by their owners.
She added that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is promoting a very good ‘One Health’ model which has the three prongs of human, animal and environmental health.
In a passionate letter to veterinarians, Dr. de Silva says that there is panic and confusion among the people regarding the role of pets in the transmission of the SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. To date, the WHO and other global public health and veterinary organisations have emphasised that there is no evidence that pets can directly transmit this virus to the people whom they live with.
“Animals continue to need safe shelter, nutritious food, clean water, companionship and exercise, regardless of how this novel virus is impacting our communities. People sick with COVID-19 should distance themselves from their pets to minimise virus transmission, wash their hands before and after touching animals, keep cats indoors, maintain appropriate physical distances from other people when exercising their pets outside and develop an emergency plan for how care will be provided for their pets in the event of serious illness,” she says.
Dr. de Silva addresses several important questions:
Do we have to worry about stray dogs spreading the disease? No. The handful of cases reported in a few countries were pets which were closely associated with human patients affected by COVID-19. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of stray dogs in your area as a source of infection.
Do we need to test our pets? No. There is no indication unless you are a COVID-19 patient.
| Face-masks prevent COVID-19 | |
 Dr. Channa de Silva With droplets causing the spread of COVID-19, properly-worn face-masks do prevent people not only from catching the infection but also from giving it to others, said Paediatric Chest Physician Dr. Channa de Silva of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo. There has been concern over the alleged deaths of children by choking due to face-masks in some countries, he said, explaining that there has been no confirmation of such reports. Different approaches are being followed by different countries but there is protection from COVID-19 by wearing face-masks properly. Reiterating that there is scientific evidence to show that the proper use of face-masks stops the virus from getting into our respiratory system, he said that the stand of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians is that “we need to wear face-masks”. Referring to face-mask use by children and adolescents, Dr. de Silva said that it would be difficult to get pre-school and young children to wear them, as they would keep removing them or touching them. So it would be better for them not to wear face-masks and in view of schools not opening soon for small children, there would be no problem. For older children such as those sitting the Grade 5 scholarship examination and the Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations who are due to begin school, face-masks would be an important requirement. How face-masks should be discarded is also important because they can be contaminated by the virus. So once a person disposes of it, that person should wash his/her hands well with soap and water, while people wearing re-usable cloth masks should wash them regularly with soap and water, he said. Dr. de Silva cautioned that some difficulties may arise when doing strenuous work while wearing a mask, as the mask acts as a barrier to oxygen inhalation. However, for all those engaging in office work etc, it should not be of concern.
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Confirmed cases and patients who have recovered
- May 16 – 25 cases were reported, 23 of them navy personnel, one a returnee from India who was in the Kandakadu quarantine centre and the other from the Meeyankulam quarantine centre. Forty-three patients receiving treatment in hospitals recovered and went home.
- May 17 – 21 cases were reported, 19 of them navy personnel and two returnees from the United Kingdom. Eighteen patients recovered and were discharged from hospital.
- May 18 – 11 cases were reported, 10 navy personnel and one a returnee from Singapore. Twenty-one patients recovered.
- May 19 – 35 cases were reported, all of whom were navy personnel. Ten patients recovered.
- May 20 – 1 case was reported of a returnee from Kuwait
- Brought back home
Around 3,542 Sri Lankans who wished to be brought back from abroad were repatriated during April 21 to May 19.
They included students, public and military officials on study or training programmes, people working abroad, patients who had sought treatment in India and monks and nuns from Myanmar.
The countries from which they were repatriated included India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The first group of 466 ‘out-of-status’ Sri Lankans who benefited from the amnesty granted by the Kuwaiti government arrived on Tuesday, after the Sri Lankan Embassy in Kuwait issued emergency travel documents to them. The amnesty enables those ‘out-of-status’ to leave Kuwait with no consequences and also to return to that country for work later legally.
- In quarantine
As of May 16, around 9,374 people had undergone quarantine, while 2,734 are currently in the 32 quarantine centres across the country.
| Vaccine research | |
| Eight of 45 participants in a vaccine trial being conducted by Moderna Inc., in Massachusetts, America, produced antibodies to COVID-19, the company announced on Monday. The Moderna potential vaccine is among 118 candidates listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 15 with the explicit proviso that the document did not mean approval or endorsement by WHO and was “only for information purposes”. In Phase 1, an open-label trial had enrolled 45 healthy adult volunteers and an analysis of the response to the Moderna vaccine had found that eight people produced antibodies for COVID-19. While Phase 2, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will test the effectiveness of the vaccine and find the optimal dose, Phase 3 is due to start in July. There are currently 118 vaccine candidates listed by the WHO, with eight in clinical evaluation and the rest in preclinical evaluation. Along with Moderna, the others in clinical evaluation are:
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