Sri Lanka failed to carry out vital genome sequencing to identify current Covid-19 strains spreading in the island in December because of intervening holidays, the head of microbiology at the Sri Jayewardenapura University Neelika Malavige said.

She said, however, there was no evidence yet of a new and more transmissible variant found in Britain and South Africa entering Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka carried out genome sequencing till the end of November, but any mutation in the December viruses could not be identified because of holidays, she said during a webinar organised by the Sri Lanka College of Community Physicians this week.

Genome sequencing is important to identify the mutations as well as track the spread of the virus. It also helps health authorities in containing the virus. She said they carried out sequencing once month but hoped to increase the sequence to fortnightly from this month with the help of WHO.

Australia funded the WHO initiative to help the Jayewardenepura University to carry out the crucial genome sequencing that is also shared with other countries in a global effort to battle the virus.

Her studies have shown that the Brandix cluster and the Peliyagoda fish-market cluster had the same origin and could technically be considered one cluster. It developed probably due to shortcomings in the quarantine procedures, she said adding that the Brandix variant spreading since late September was not linked to the variant that spread in the first wave which started earlier last year.

Dead don’t spread

Participating in the same webinar on December 30, world authority on viruses, Professor Malik Peiris, of the Hong Kong University debunked theories of those who die of Covid-19 spreading the disease by contaminating ground water if they are buried.

Peiris said the virus could be spread through droplets from the respiratory system, saliva and faecal matter of Covid-19 patients, but the virus degrades on a dead body and lasts only a few hours. A person who is not breathing cannot spread Covid-19, he said.

He also trashed the theories expounded by Professor Meththika Vithanage, a senior lecturer in geology at the Sri Jayewardenepura University, who has militantly argued against burials of the Covid dead.

Professor Peiris made it clear that he had no issue with the credentials of geologists who probably knew soil science very well, but when it comes to virology and microbiology, they must leave it in the hands of the experts in the field.

Vithanage, in a recent public statement, pointed to the burial of millions of culled minks in Denmark and claimed that Danish authorities had later exhumed the carcasses and cremated them to prevent the spread of the virus through the contamination of ground water.

Prof. Peiris said this claim was blatantly false. Danish authorities have not exhumed the mink carcasses, but had fenced the burial area as bloating carcasses were considered an eye sore. The Danish authorities have made it clear that dead mink cannot transmit the Covid-19 virus.

Vithanage’s claim that the exhumed mink were immediately incinerated is also false. Any incineration is due to take place in May 2021. (AFP)