9 July 2021 08:52 am Views - 294
By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera
The Government has planned to open up the country within two months after vaccinating all the people in the country at least with a single dose, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said yesterday.
He told Parliament that more than three million people who are engaged in the tourism sector had faced numerous hardships due to the pandemic situation in the country.
Responding to a question raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake on the issues in the tourism sector, the Minister said the country has to be opened up to find long-term solutions to the issues faced by the people in the sector. The Minister said countries such as Singapore has vaccinated 80 percent of the population and thus have been able to open up the country and added that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has also stressed the need to open up Sri Lanka within two months after all the people being vaccinated at least with a single dose.
He said tourism was further crippled after the third wave and pointed out that there was no report that tourists who arrived in the country recently under Bio-bubble had spread COVID-19.
The Minister said the new health guidelines issued by the Director-General of Health Services had allowed tourists who are fully vaccinated to travel in Sri Lanka without being quarantined for 14 days.
THASL commends government for easing restrictions on incoming passengers from non-travel restricted countries
THASL especially welcomes decision to allow fully vaccinated persons to enter the country with a single day’s quarantine.
Issuing a statement last night the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) thanked the Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachi, the Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga, the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism S. Hettiarachchi, the Chairperson of Sri Lanka Tourism Kimarli Fernando and the Director General of SLTDA Dhammika Wijayasinghe for their untiring efforts in facilitating the reopening of the tourism industry. “We are delighted that Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is once again open with minimum inconvenience for visitors while maintaining strict health guidelines. THASL especially welcomes the decision to allow fully vaccinated persons to enter the country with only a single day’s quarantine, subject to negative PCR test results prior to arrival and on arrival,” it stated.