Anti-COVID ‘Stay Strong’ campaign by Korean Embassy in Sri Lanka

• Initiative under Korea - Sri Lanka cooperation for the fight against COVID-19

Under the ‘Stay Strong’ campaign, Korea and Sri Lanka have been strengthening Anti-COVID collaboration with each other. 

The Korean Embassy in Sri Lanka has shown its thankfulness to the Sri Lanka Army and Police, who have dedicated themselves to protect people in Sri Lanka including the Korean residents amid COVID-19, by donating re-usable fabric masks. The Embassy provided masks to migrant workers who left for Korea as well. These re-usable masks were manufactured by a Sri Lankan social enterprise which empowers Sri Lankan women. Together with it the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) distributed these re-usable masks among rural communities in Sri Lanka to uplift public health among communities.

The Embassy noted that it was the effective measures implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka to cope with COVID-19 that helped Sri Lanka become the first South Asian country to hold a nationwide general election safely last August since the COVID-19 outbreak. 

With the proactive mechanism adopted by the authorities and also the support of the citizens, it is certain that the number of cases in Sri Lanka will decline and the situation will stabilise in the near future. The people of Sri Lanka have played a significant role in controlling the pandemic by keeping social distancing and following health guidelines diligently, the Embassy said in a statement. 

It said Korea is struggling to deter the spread of COVID-19 too. Korea has overcome the critical stage of the spread of the virus by strengthening its infectious disease surveillance and response capacity. The principles of openness and transparency were applied when enforcing counter measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  The response of the government of Korea was four-pronged: testing, tracing, treating and building civic awareness. 

Like Sri Lanka, Korea was the first country in the world that held a nationwide general election safely last April since the outbreak of the virus. It is remarkable that there was no single COVID-19 case from more than 1200 Sri Lankan workers repatriated from Korea until now. At this point of time, 23,000 Sri Lankan workers live in Korea very safely.

“Korea and Sri Lanka are true friends to each other. Korea will stand in solidarity with Sri Lanka in this hour of need to provide public health support this year to successfully combat the battle against COVID-19,” the statement from the Embassy added.