State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, who had completed recovery after being infected with Covid-19, has appealed to the government and health authorities to facilitate home-quarantining for people with mild symptoms of the virus, in order to minimise the spending on operating quarantine centres. 

In a statement posted on his official Facebook account, the state minister said the novel coronavirus has now spread ‘uncontrollably’ across the country.

“Given the situation, the government is not in a position to direct all patients to quarantine centres as the medical staff is limited and the quarantine process costs the government an unaffordable amount of money,” he said. 

Stressing this, he urged the government and the health sector to allow people with mild symptoms of Covid-19 to home-quarantine if there is a separate room with lavatory facilities at their respective residences.

Mr Jayasekara also requested the government to allow a 14-day home-quarantine procedure for Sri Lankan expatriates in foreign countries who are brought back to the country. He noted that providing quarantine facilities to the returnees is not going to be an easy task when the authorities hope to repatriate more than 60,000 expatriates in the future.

The state minister returned home yesterday (January 20) from quarantine upon recovering from the Covid-19 virus. He expressed gratitude to the medical team and the staff of Hotel Lanka Super Corals in Hikkaduwa, where he stayed, for the service rendered.

He appealed to the members of the public to be mindful and to stay away from their family members, self-quarantine and inform the nearest Public Health Inspector (PHI) if them have any symptoms such as fever, cold, cough, loss of taste.