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Tuesday, 8 December 2020 01:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Chandani Kirinde
Seventy policemen attached to the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and 20 Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers who were tasked with investigating the outbreak of COVID-19 at Brandix – Minuw-angoda are infected with the virus, Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekera told Parliament yesterday.
He said the team of police officers had been deployed on the advice of the Attorney General to investigate the COVID-19 outbreak at the garment factory. “Two days into the investigation, 70 CCD officers tested positive for COVID-19. The CID took over the investigation on 5 November and 20 of them are also infected.
The CID has recorded more than 100 statements by now. They are working under the guidance of the Epidemiology Unit,” Weerasekera said.
He said of the 1500 employees at Brandix, 400 had not tested positive for COVID-19 and antigen tests are now being carried out to detect if they had the virus, but did not show any symptoms.
“Some of the workers from whom statements were recorded have told the CID that they had continued to work while they had fever, took medicine to keep the temperature down, and not informed their supervisors as they needed their overtime payment.»
He said there are eight foreigners working at Brandix; of whom seven have not left the country since the COVID-19 outbreak, while the other employee who had travelled to England had returned and followed the required quarantine procedures.
Weerasekera also said of the 500 Sri Lankans working at the Brandix factory at Visakhapatnam in India, 341 workers had returned in three batches; of which 10 were found to be COVID-19 positive, but none of the returnees had visited the Brandix factories in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed State Minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and COVID Prevention Sudarshani Fernandopulle told Parliament that investigations so far point to a member of a Ukrainian airline crew who were staying at a hotel in Seeduwa, as the most likely source of the outbreak of the Brandix cluster.
“The strongest indication so far is that the coronavirus outbreak at Brandix came via a foreigner. A member of a Ukrainian airline crew staying at the Ramada Hotel in Seeduwa was found to be COVID-19 positive. Following this, several members of the staff too tested positive. Investigations have revealed there was some contact between the staff members and some employees at Brandix,” she said.
The State Minister said that Prof. Neelika Malavige of the Sri Jayewardenepura University and her team has found that the strain of the coronavirus circulating in the country from mid-October is different to the strain of the initial outbreak, but that it is similar to the European strain; which would suggest that the Brandix cluster was formed through a foreign source.
She added that tests done on the patients from the Minuwangoda-Peliyagoda cluster shows that this virus is more aggressive and contagious than those detected in people who were infected in the first wave.
Minister Fernandopulle said that the Government has taken several measures to control the spread of the virus in the country, including doing random tests in high-risk areas among high-risk communities, workers and taken measures to stop illegal immigrants coming into the country etc.
The State Minister disclosed the information in response to a question raised by JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake regarding the investigation into the latest outbreak of the coronavirus.
