• Health history of passengers checked at airport

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera

The Government has taken all necessary measures required to prevent the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ from entering the country, Minister Namal Rajapaksa said yesterday.

He told Parliament that health guidelines were strictly followed in all the airports and that even the health history of the passengers were checked at the airport.

“Health guidelines are strictly followed at all the airports. Even the health history of the passengers are checked at the airport. We have introduced a Health App also together with the Technology Ministry and the Airport to support the airport staff in this process,” he said.

Responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who asked about what are the actions taken to prevent the new variant from entering the country, the Minister said the health authorities have taken all the necessary action to prevent the new variant from entering the country three days ago. The Opposition Leader said the new variant has been named by the WHO as a variant of concern and that the health authorities had pointead out that strict measures should be taken to face it.

Minister Rajapaksa said travel restrictions have already been imposed on passengers from six countries entering Sri Lanka as a precautionary measure.

• Travel restrictions have already been imposed on passengers from six countries entering Sri Lanka as a precautionary measure