Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said due to the prompt interventions made by the military and Police with the support of the intelligence agencies, the impact of coronavirus, in Sri Lanka has reduced to a great extent with a significantly low death toll, compared to other countries..
He said Sri Lankan military’s contribution to combat the new coronavirus would set a good example to other nations on how effectively the country’s military could be utilised with health workers to mitigate disease related calamities.
Maj. Gen. Gunaratne in an interview with defence.lk said in a life-and-death situation, the military and the Policel were contributing to contain the spread of coronavirus..
“It is a totally different battle the military has stepped into combating coronavirus pandemic, which is a calamity. The military has to fight with the enemy that will destroy the entire nation if not properly fought,” he said adding that the Government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has formulated a well organised strategy to mitigate the spread of coronavirus and to look into the welfare of the people who have been affected by the curfew.
Excerpts of the interview
Q: Defence Military is actively engaged in combating COVID-19. How do you evaluate their contribution?
A: It is a totally different battle the military has stepped into combating the coronavirus pandemic, which is a calamity. The military has to fight with the enemy that will destroy the entire nation if not properly fought.. Therefore, the military is saddled with a huge responsibility to ensure national security whether it is a threat or an attack from terrorists, a pandemic or natural disasters.
Similarly, even in a pandemic the military is tasked to ensure national security. To combat coronavirus while assuring national security, the Defence and Health sectors are working together under the directives of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
In addition, all other Ministries including the Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government are working together to control the threat. With the prompt intervention of the military and Police, the impact of coronavirus, in the country has reduced to a great extent, with a very low death toll.
Q: Some interested parties claim we could have managed the situation better if we had plans for quarantine early. Do you agree that the authorities concerned had taken it lightly at the early stages?
A: I refute such allegations. Some people as a habit criticise everything a Government does. They pin point minor mistakes while we go through severe hardships to deliver effectively.
Since inception, we shouldered our responsibility when the first batch of students came to the country from Wuhan, China. We set up the first quarantine centre at the Military Hospital Diyatalawa.
But, when we received initial directives from the Government to start quarantine for those who returned from Iran, South Korea and Italy, we didn’t have a place ready for the task. However, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) led by Commander Lt,Gen. Shavendra Silva shouldering a great responsibility, organized quarantine centres immediately to cater to the requirement, organizing fully pledged quarantine centres.
Having understood the gravity of the rapidly spreading coronavirus, globally, we started the quarantine process from March 10. Our main focus was sending the returnees from those countries hit by the virus directly to quarantine centres from the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake.
However, we faced a challenge as many returnees avoided quarantine as they wanted to be with their families during their short stay in the country. They were not aware of the deadliness of the virus.
Q: According to Army Commander, there are over 19,000 people directed to ‘home quarantine’. Do you plan to get the assistance of military intelligence to monitor whether they are undergoing quarantine genuinely in their homes?
A: People assume that the entire treatment process ends after admitting a coronavirus positive patient to the Infectious Disease Hospital. But the full investigation starts there with the involvement of the intelligence agencies including Military Intelligence (MI). These officers spend sleepless nights searching for people who had close contacts with coronavirus infected patients, their whereabouts and also those who are evading quarantine.
The MI officers will also get all mobile contacts of patients from the respective service providers and also the places they visited last.
Q: Some people accuse the military claiming that their privacy is at stake when their mobile phone details are traced.
A: Here, national security is important to protect the entire country from the coronavirus. We are doing this only to trace the people who have close connections with coronavirus infected persons and those who are still evading quarantine.
The best example is those coronavirus positive patients found in Ja-Ela and Beruwala. Our intelligence agencies including MI, Naval and Police are working round-the –clock to find those who had close links with the infected people. When we find them, we ask them to self-quarantine in their homes and we inform their details to regional Police authorities, who will visit their houses with Public Health Inspectors (PHI) to give health instructions while pasting a sticker giving a warning to the residents in the area to isolate them for 14-days to prevent coronavirus spreading further in the locality.
Q: At the very beginning the response from returnees from coronavirus hit countries was critical and they were evading quarantine process. What is the situation now?
A: Since the Government was busy with plans to face the coronavirus threat, we couldn’t pay much attention to the returnees, who arrived in the country between March 1 to 10 from coronavirus hit countries like Italy, South Korea and Iran. To get them into the quarantine process the Defence Ministry announced through media to contact 119 giving them a deadline to get them registered for quarantine.
We received information of about over 22,000 and that information were passed to regional Police stations to take action. Police and PHIs visited their houses to keep them under house quarantine. This is how we took immediate actions to control the rapid spread of the virus.
The Government is aware of some allegations claiming that we don’t have a proper mitigation plan. If we didn’t have a system, by now the impact would have been similar to Italy. The methodology we have implemented has proved to be successful when compared to the situation, today.
The majority who have contacted the virus are returnees from coronavirus hit countries. But later under this registration system, many of them volunteered to reveal the symptoms on their arrival to Sri Lanka and this made us to direct them to medical advices or quarantine.
There are people, who are still evading quarantine process. One example was the Atalugama incident where one person was hiding from getting exposed until it became a disaster, which led to a total lockdown of the entire village with 26 houses and 176 people.
Another person who died had been admitted to two hospitals endangering healthcare workers. If healthcare professionals are being sent to quarantine centres, the healthcare system would be paralysed and this is one reason why we requested the public to volunteer to come forward if they suspected any symptoms of coronavirus.
We have a software by which the intelligence agencies can easily identify those infected.. All details of infected persons will be given to relevant authorities to mitigate the spread of the virus. The intelligence agencies are working from dawn to dusk to get the others who had close connections with the infected persons into quarantine process.
The entire Government machinery led by the President, medical doctors, health staffers, military and those who are in distribution chains handling essential items to people, are risking their lives to serve the public.
Everyone has a responsibility at this critical juncture. Still they have time to come forward for medical help if they suspect any coronavirus symptoms and follow the security and health guidelines..
I have also noticed people gathering, even in the totally locked Atalugama village. When a village is locked down, it doesn’t mean they can mingle with people and roam around freely. It means the villagers are strictly instructed to be confined to their homes.
Q: Some alleged the quarantine facility set up at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Hospital is for VIPs and foreign embassy staff. Is it true?
A: I strongly refute that allegation and I am very sad to see how people spread false information over social media while the Government is fully dedicated to protect the people.
KDU Hospital is the only university hospital in the country and the KDU Vice Chancellor Maj. Gen. Milinda Peiris informed me that they could provide its ICU beds and facilities for corornavirus positive patients if necessary. We have decided to allocate some facilities for diplomats in foreign mission if they required. They are not VIPs as it was claimed and this hospital is open for ordinary people despite their social status and ethnicity.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, over 800 patients received OPD treatments at the hospital without discrimination.
Q: Despite strong warnings, still some interested parties and individuals post false information on social media.
A: Yes, I also noticed somebody saying people have died in Sri Lanka due to coronavirus and the government is trying to cover up the story. These are the depiction of either petty political agendas or animosity,, or rather to have some fun over distressed citizens.
We have instructed the Police and other agencies handling fake news to take stern legal action against rumour mongers and some have already been taken into custody. While other nations are admiring the well organised measures taken by the Government, some interested parties are trying to disrepute the hard work done by all who are risking their lives for the people of the country.
But they cannot escape as our intelligence agencies are fully alert to identify them and direct them to law enforcement authorities. This disease doesn’t have any difference – race, religion, region, ethnicity, poor or rich- but it is a serious threat to all communities, globally. The Government will not hesitate to take every possible measure to protect the country and the people and also will take tough legal action those who disrupt the system, spreading false rumours.
Q: Travel restrictions plus curfew have impacted the daily life of the masses. Will there be a new plan to give them relief during curfew to attend to their day-to-day requirement ?
A: Yes, I do agree people have to undergo hardships. Imposing curfew can be done in twofold – one is curfew under emergency law and the other is Police curfew. Curfew under emergency law is absolutely a lockdown, in which nobody can come on streets and it is imposed to combat terrorist attacks. In Police curfew, people have time to buy essential items and attend to banking. This is police curfew
Initially, we maintained a relaxed curfew policy not to put much pressure on people, however since they have taken it lightly and moved freely, we were compelled to impose islandwide curfew to restrict their movement to contain the spread of coronavirus. We also started arresting people and taking their vehicles into custody for violating curfew law.
I have also noticed traffic congestion in Dehiwala and Peliyagoda during curfew. People’s behaviour forced us to impose curfew strictly for their own good to control the spread of coronavirus, which would lead to a calamity, if strict preventive measures are not enforced.
When the military and healthcare workers are struggling to control the virus spread, the public has a greater responsibility to support us by heeding to laws and regulations, which have been imposed to protect them.
It is unfortunate to see the irresponsible behaviour of some people who attacked the military, which is committed and dedicated to protect the people. They risk their lives for the people of the country.
If people heed to health and security advices to ‘stay at home and follow social distancing’ we would be able to relax the prevailing curfew.
Q: You are a member of some important committees appointed to look into the smooth functioning of the Government machinery to combat coronavirus and also the welfare of the people. What is the progress of those initiatives?
A: After a few coronavirus positive patients were reported from Sri Lanka, the Government started implementing programs but it took a few days to formulate a proper mechanism to run the Government machinery smoothly.
Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a special Presidential Task Force (PTF) to coordinate and monitor essential services to deliver goods to the community under former Minister Basil Rajapaksa. I am also in that committee, which comprises over 40 Government officials. The Disaster Management Centre (DMC), which is under my purview, is also engaged in this process and it has its own mechanism to work in coordination with Government Agents, Assistant GAs, Divisional Secretaries and Grama Sevaka in all districts and divisions.
Therefore, the PTF has an enormous capacity to cater to the requirement as all 40 members are top Government officials and they have similar capacities to contribute to the PTF. For example; Ministry Secretaries of Public Administration, Finance, Commanders of Tri Forces, Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Labour Department and Chairman of Consumer Affairs Authority are also in the committee. This mechanism is functioning well now.
We got complaints of some people misusing previously prescribed medicine prescriptions to visit their relatives in other areas when curfew was relaxed. Since we have seen there is a possibility of spreading this virus, we formulated a mechanism to distribute medicine via State Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacies registered under the National Medicines Regulatory Authority which has the capacity to reach their customers.
However, we got some complaints saying that there are some shortcomings in the system and we took immediate steps to rectify the lapses to provide relief to people.