• Now they are faced with a situation of being thrown out of their boarding houses

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama  

We have a Health Ministry that cannot make an accurate announcement about the number of COVID deaths or even the number of PCR tests that are conducted daily with results, the Health Services Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA) President Saman Rathnapriya said.   

He told the media yesterday that if the Health Ministry is unable to release accurate information, the country cannot control the pandemic.  

“It is an unfortunate situation. Without having updated and accurate daily COVID figures, it is very hard to control the situation. Every PCR test takes a maximum of four days to release results and there is no proper mechanism to update the daily COVID deaths,” he said.  

Senior officials, including doctors, will reap the benefits of continuing with this practice. However, nurses and junior staff are yet to receive any.  

Therefore, we staged a silent protest on June 3 and urged that justice should be meted out to nurses and minor staff. They are not even compensated for the services they provide.  

“Now they are faced with a situation of being thrown out of their boarding houses,” he said.