COLOMBO– Sri Lanka’s Parliament will function as normal although at least three parliamentarians and a senior official of the Prime Minister’s office tested positive for COVID-19. An announcement by the Sergeant-at-Arms, Narendra Fernando, initially confirmed two parliamentarians and the senior official of the PM’s office had contracted the virus, but news reports Monday (11) morning said Minister of Water Supply, Vasudeva Nanayakkara of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had also tested positive for the virus.
The other two parliamentarians, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and State Minister of Batik, Handloom and Local Apparel Products, Dayasiri Jayasekara, and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader Rauff Hakeem, announced their conditions on Sunday (10).
Fernando identified the senior official as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Coordinating Secretary for political affairs, Kumarasiri Hettige.
Reports, quoting a Parliament officials said Nanayakkara, who is 82-years-old will be taken to a Covid treatment facility.
Hakeem, who is 60, had attended Parliament on January 5, and had come into contact with 15 other MPs and several Parliament staff, Fernando, adding contacts had been traced by viewing CCTV footage.
Jayasekara, 51, had had a fever and undergone a PCR test, which came back positive on January 8. He is currently under treatment at a Hotel-turned Quarantine Centre in Hikkaduwa, media reports said..
Jayasekara had attended a traditional ceremony at the SLFP Headquarters on January 1, which had drawn a number of other parliamentarians including Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.
Hettige had come to Parliament on January 8 and had attended a meeting in the office of the Leader of the House, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Fernando said.
Several officials in the office of the Leader of the House have been identified as close contacts of Hettige and will be duly tested for the virus. The locations that he had visited in Parliament have been identified and disinfected the announcement added.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene had told reporters on Sunday night that it was unavoidable for MPs to contract the virus “as they have to travel to areas where there are infected people.”
-economynext.com/ENCL