News
Govt. hospitals should introduce drive-through testing – medical don
By Rathindra Kuruwita
Drive-through PCR testing was one of the safest ways of testing whether a person had contracted the disease and should be conducted by government hospitals, academic and physician, Prof. Arjuna de. Silva told The Island yesterday.
Prof.de Silva is the Head of the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA).
He said medical associations played a vital role in making the government implement a lockdown, and the government had to increase PCR testing during the lockdown.
“I know that the lockdown is affecting the economy. That is why we must get the best out of this sacrifice, and we need to find out what the hotspots are. For this, we must keep testing. When the positive rate is above 5% of total tests, usually we think that this is an indication that not enough tests are being conducted.”
Prof. de Silva said that in recent days, testing had dropped and one of the reasons for it was the banning of private hospitals from conducting drive-through testing. He conceded that the government had a valid reason for the ban. However, it should start such tests at the state-run hospitals or other state institutions, he said.
“Drive-through testing was a very safe method because testing takes place in an open area and people are tested in their own vehicles. In other countries people are even vaccinated in this manner. We must think outside the box.”
Prof.de Silva added that around 70% of COVID-19 patients were asymptomatic but they could still spread the disease. That made testing doubly important because as the health officials and medical professionals did not have a real understanding of what the ground realities were.
On Wednesday Prof. De Silva also urged the government not to open up the country at once and to study the developments during the present country wide travel restrictions to identify potential hotspots.
“Open the safe areas first and then open up the rest of the country. We need to increase testing to identify what is really going on. If we open up everything once, any gain we have made in the past two weeks will be lost.”
The Ministry of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development has recommended the establishment of Sri Lankan Standards, i.e. the import testing methodology for imported tires used for passenger cars and pneumatic tires for three-wheelers with the aim of ensuring a fair competitive environment for local
manufactures and ensuring consumer safety and security.
Taking into the said recommendations, “Import and Export (control regulations N0.08 of the 2026)” has been enacted to amend the existing regulations by means of the Extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 2508/27 dated 2026-10-01, prescribing Sri Lanka standard 1212 for the import of passenger types (HS Code 4011.10.90) and Sri Lanka standard 1347 for the import of
pneumatic tires for three – wheeled vehicles (HS Code 4011.90.10).
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development to submit the aforementioned regulations to Parliament for approval.
Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was granted at their meeting held on 02.06.2025 to introduce a new act to promote and providing legal provisions for facilitating the Public Private Joint Enterprises within Sri Lanka as well as the establishment of the National Agency for Public Private Partnership Joint Enterprises.
Accordingly, the Legal Draftsman has formulated the relevant draft bill and the Attorney General has given his clearance to the said draft bill.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to publish the said
draft bill in the government gazette notification and thereby submit it to the Parliament for its concurrence.
Regulation, development and control of indigenous medical sector in Sri Lanka comprised of Ayurvedha, Sidhdha, Unani, Local Therapies are carried out under the provisions of Ayurvedha Act No. 31 of 1961.
Although amendments were made to the act from time to time as per the requirements, the necessity of further amending the Ayurvedha Act has been identified to enable efficiently maintaining all activities of local medical field productively, further formalizing the regulation of the sector, taking actions to providing licenses applicable to export of local medicines, and achieving the progress and sustainable development goals in the local medical sector.
Based on the said factors, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to direct the Legal Draftsman to formulate a draft bill to amend the Ayurvedha Act No. 31 of 1961.
Import and Export (Control) Regulations No. 08 of 2026
Draft Bill of the Public Private Partnership Enterprises Act to be gazzetted
Amendment of the Ayurvedha Act No. 31 of 1961
Cabinet nod to amend the Sri Lanka Development Administration Institute Act No. 9 of 1982
Establishment of the National Higher Performance Centre
State patronage for the cremation ceremony of the late deputy prelate (Anu Nayaka Thero) of the Sri Laka Ramangya Maha Nikaya, Gatambe Rajopawanramadhipatha, Siri Chandawimala Wanshalankara, Chandrakeerthi Sri Amarawansha, Sadhdharmawageeshwara, Shasanashobhanna Most Venerable Keppetiyagoda Siriwimalabhidhana Thero
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