Quarantine at home, patients with no symptoms admitted to transit centers in Sri Lanka

Director of Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka Dr. Sudath Samaraweera said that the quarantine of the associates of the COVID-19 patients will be done at home in future. 

Only the persons like patients with chronic illnesses who cannot undergo home quarantine will be admitted to a quarantine centre.  

The persons under home quarantine will be freed after 14 days following a PCR test. 

The chief epidemiologist further said that the COVID-19 patients who do not show symptoms have no risk would not be admitted to hospitals. They will be kept in transit centres. They will be freed after 14 days without PCR tests, according to international standards. 

New COVID-19 cases identified from Gampaha declining

Secretary of Public Health Inspectors' Association of Sri Lanka, Mahendra Balasuriya said that there is a drop of newly identified COVID-19 patients in Gampaha district. The official highlighted that the people in the district are better in terms of following health guidelines. The district is under curfew for more than a month now. 

However, about half of the 400 new COVID-19 cases identified yesterday was from Gampaha district. 

Two bodies of elephant cubs in Sri Lanka suspected twins

Dead bodies of two newborn elephant cubs were recovered from Welikanda area of Polonnaruwa district of Sri Lanka. 

The deaths are believed to happen around November 5, immediately after birth, Assistant Director of Wildlife in charge of the area W.M.K.S. Chandraratne said.

Wildlife officials are investigating whether the dead cubs are twins. One of the cubs is identified as male while the other body is charred beyond the identity of sex, the Wildlife Officials say. 

Twin birth of elephants is a rare occurrence and such birth reported from Minneriya National Park of Sri Lanka in July 2020. 

Additional three months grace period for the low-interest COVID-19 business revival loans

The entrepreneurs who obtained the low-interest government loan to revive businesses affected by COVID-19 can now apply to Central Bank of Sri Lanka for an extension up to nine months to pay back the loan. 

The interest for this loan was 4% and the recipients were given 24 months to payback. The government previously offered six months grace period and now the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has agreed to provide three more months as a grace period. The businesses affected by the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 can submit a written request to Central Bank via the bank they obtained the loan to get this facility. 

Holding GCE Advanced Level examination in Sri Lanka amidst COVID-19 is a victory

Sri Lanka Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris said that holding GCE Advanced Level examination amidst COVID-19 was a victory.

The  Minister said that six candidates were found positive for coronavirus by the beginning of the examination. Within three weeks, the number increased to 29. The number of candidates who were sent for quarantine was 568. Invigilators had to be replaced due to the virus. 

Examination Commissioner Sanath Pujitha said that the decision rearding evaluation of the examination will be taken two weeks later under the guidelimes of the health authorities.

Four COVID-19 deaths today; prioritize people's problems, not other things - Sri Lanka opposition

Sri Lanka's major opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) accused that the government was trying to quit from the responsibility of COVID-19 pushing the people into trouble while four deaths had been reported today by the time the press conference was held. 

Addressing a press conference held today SJB Puttalm district MP Hector Appuhamy questioned what the government could deliver to the people with the 20th amendment to the constitution now. Accusing the government of giving up control of COVID-19, the SJB MP questioned what had the government done to the COVID-19 fund, including over 120 million dollar World Bank grant. 

He said that the government was not helping the people who were under quarantine as promised to give them a Rs. 10,000 worth pack of food commodities.    

He also stated that the SJB was suspicious over the involvement of Brandix company with the second wave of COVID-19. Appuhamy said that the owner of the company had funded the present government during the election campaign and the investigation on Brandix was delaying despite the Attorney General's orders. 

Appuhamy said that they had suspicion over holding the Lanka Premier League (LPL 2020) cricket tournament at this moment. 

SJB demanded the government to prioritize people's problems worsened by COVID-19 instead of other political programmes like bringing Basil Rajapaksa to parliament and celebrating the government's and ruling party's anniversaries.

2020 university entrance method wrong; rectify immediately - Socialist Students' Union

Socialist Student Union (SSU) says that students who faced GCE Advanced Level examination in 2019 face a severe injustice. The reason is that the university entrance is scheduled without taking actions to maximise the opportunities for the students for university entrance. 

The results, z-scores and ranks are lined up according to the new syllabus and old syllabus. The examination was held on both old and new syllabuses in 2019.

Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU pointed out that they had been discussing the crisis with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the educational authorities for more than seven months. He said they urged the UGC to announce the number of students to be enrolled. People's Liberation Front (JVP) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake raised a question in the parliament about this on 18th February 2020. 

However, UGC was telling that they would base on a Supreme Court judgment delivered in 2012. Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya pointed out that the judgment is relevant to the case SCFR/29/2012 which was filed on similar ground. 

SSU said that UGC gave z-score under one system and two fundamental right petitions were filed against it. SCFR/29/2012 judgment was delivered accordingly. In that, only the method of z-score calculation was discussed. After that, the education authorities prepared z-scores separately and lined them up together.

However, eight petitions were filed by over 100 students against this decision. The way the lining up and selection were discussed in this case and a settlement was reached to line up the new syllabus and old syllabus separately. UGC proposed four ways of enrollment and it was agreed to give maximum benefit to the student. Accordingly, UGC maximised the university intake to minimise the injustice to the students.

According to the settlement related to SCFR408/12 case, eventually, the enrollment was increased by26%. University admission was increased from 21,500 to 27,100 by enrolling 5,600 more students. The students were given an opportunity to sit for the examination for the fourth time as well. The universities could afford the increased intake. "For example, the intake for medicine was 1175 and it was increased by another158 students. It was an increase of 15%. Ironically, although the UGC that was complaining about the facilities for the students, later enrolled more than 50 students to state medical faculties for paid education," said Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU. 

However, the settlement arrived at the second instance in 2012 has not been considered by UGC in 2020. 

SSU said that the judgment of SCFR/29/2012 is not relevant to UGC because it is on the way the z-score is calculated. Instead, UGC must consider the settlement arrived at the case SCFR408/12 and schedule university entrance accordingly.   

SSU pointed out that the UGC had not announced the quota of student enrollment for universities in 2020. Therefore, the students had expectations based on the results of the students in previous years. Some lost opportunity and some lost the expected course. Some did not apply for other courses because they had expected they would be selected to particular courses, according to their result. Also, the students lost the hopes to enrol in higher rank universities. Z-score is relevant to the selection of subjects after the entrance too. The students who lost opportunity for university entrance missed the chance to apply for the other higher education courses like NDT and HNDE.  

After 14 months, now, their hopes are shattered due to the UGC action. Therefore, SSU demanded the government and the UGC to implement the agreement arrived at the Supreme Court in 2012 in relation to case SCFR/408/12 without further wasting their time. 

SSU further challenged the UGC to release the statistics on the enrollment and prove that their method of enrollment is right. 

"Grant a solution based on the settlement in 2011 using a method to maximise the enrollment on the basis of district ranks and island ranks," Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU urged the government.