Senior officials of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) briefed Cabinet on Wednesday on the role that the intelligence services have played in contact tracing to identify COVID-19 clusters, Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardana said yesterday.

He said the SIS officers were invited by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to brief the Cabinet of Ministers by giving a presentation with the relevant data and other information on how coronavirus infected persons and those exposed to them were traced, and how the quarantine process was done. Gunawardana said the Cabinet held extensive discussions on the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in country to control it.

He stated that the Cabinet Ministers had informed the President that the information must be made public, and it was decided that a special television program would be conducted on Saturday from 10 am to 11 am over State TV, so that the SIS officers could do the necessary presentation. He said the methodology used by them to trace coronavirus patients since the first patient was found in the country would be made known to all.

 “Cabinet was of the view that that the entire country must be informed of the services rendered by these officers at great risk to their personal wellbeing. This is necessary, as there is a lot of misinformation and there must be transparency in the process,” he said.

All Cabinet Ministers had also exchanged views with the President on the need to increase testing for the COVID-19 virus, and how each ministry can help in this regard.

Gunawardana, who is the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Higher Education, Technology and Innovations, said that several of the State universities are assisting in conducting PCR testing for COVID-19.

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