By Rathindra Kuruwita

The government is trying to sabotage the drive to detect the Omicron COVID variant by preventing the University of Sri Jayewardenepura from conducting gene sequencing, College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS) President, Ravi Kumudesh alleged yesterday.

Kumudesh told The Island that one of the persons with Omicron detected in Sri Lanka was an Indian national and that he was allowed to come in and roam about the country, due to the loopholes in the systems put in place by the Ministry of Health.”When the Health Ministry makes guidelines, they don’t think about controlling the pandemic. A few people in charge of making these guidelines, act according to their whims and fancies. We have detected a few cases of Omicron but this was because of luck and dedication of lab technologists and the researchers at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura,” he said.

Kumudesh said that although, gene sequencing of the Indian was done, it was a prohibited act according to the guidelines. Technically, unless some senior officers approved it, gene sequencing of individuals leaving the country and those who had been double jabbed was not possible, he said.

“The Indian had been double jabbed and this only proved how ridiculous the guidelines are. To ensure that there will not be future embarrassments, these officials are now trying to cut the University of Sri Jayewardenepura out of the process. They have issued a circular appointing several establishments to carry out gene sequencing in the future,” he said.

Kumudesh said that they had asked health officials to start gene sequencing in state run labs for the past two years.

“We also warned that due to the lax testing at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), there is a strong possibility of a new variant of COVID-19 entering the country. We said that even a travel ban would be useless unless the country enhances its testing and surveillance capacities,” Kumudesh said.

The CMLS President said that PCR tests were not conducted on passengers on arrival and that it was likely that even those not fully vaccinated were entering the country. “Gene sequencing in respect of those infected with COVID inside the country was at a minimal level, and therefore, there is no way we can find out whether a new variant has entered the country and spread until it is too late.”

“There are two state-of-the-art labs at the BIA but no tests are done there. We are not ready, at all. Several nations are imposing travel bans on travellers from South Africa and the region. Perhaps, we should follow suit. However, the fact that we don’t test those coming in means that even a travel ban might be useless,” he said.