The Government is prepared to send an entire village to be quarantined if required, the Defence Ministry said yesterday.
Defence Secretary Major General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said that apart from the Tri-Forces and Police, intelligence agencies are being extensively used to trace those who have close links to coronavirus patients.
Gunaratne was briefing the Deputy Head of Mission of the Japanese Embassy, Toshishiro Kitamur, at the Defence Ministry yesterday.
The Japanese Government commended the role of the military and Police in supporting the health authorities to combat coronavirus in the country.
“We appreciate your efforts taken to control the spread of the coronavirus,” Kitamura said when he met the Defence Secretary at the Ministry, yesterday.
Explaining the present situation with regards to steps taken to control the coronavirus in the country, the Defence Secretary said the Government had applied the ‘root bolt’ system, which will eliminate all possible contact links of coronavirus infected patients in the respective areas.
The Defence Secretary said that if only the health authorities had been given the task to control the spread of the coronavirus, it would have reached an uncontrollable point.
He said the military and Police, which were playing supportive roles to the health authorities, first analyse the cluster of corona infected people, their behaviour, and their close links before locking down a village or an area.
“Depending on the analysis, if the lock down was not enough to control the spread of the corornavirus, the Government would send the people in the entire village for quarantine. If only a few families had been exposed to the virus we will put only those families under quarantine,” he said.
The Defence Secretary and Kitamura also discussed strengthening defence relations, especially improving naval capabilities of the Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Coast Guards which are heavily engaged in combating drug smuggling and human trafficking. (Colombo Gazette)