By Sheain Fernandopulle   

An inquiry has been launched into the incident where nearly 400 employees of a factory in the Thulhiriya Free Trade Zone (FTZ) have been found to be infected with COVID-19.  

Speaking to Daily Mirror, Commissioner General of Labour- Prabhath Chandrakeerthi Silva said the probe had been initiated on the instructions of the Minister of Labour Nimal Siripala de Silva.   

“The probe would find whether the relevant factory has taken health guidelines for granted and what really went wrong leading to a considerable number of cases being detected in a single factory,” he said.    “The officials attached to the Labour Department are carrying out the inquiry. They will obtain additional advise or support from the Health Ministry if needed,” he said.   

“There are about 3,000 employees at the relevant factory and several employees who had voluntarily offered to be subject to a PCR test on their own cost, had contracted the virus. Subsequently, the rest of the employees were directed for PCR tests out of whom, 400 employees including some top officials tested positive for the virus,” he explained.   

Moreover, Commissioner General of Labour said it was also decided in a special meeting the necessity of monitoring the COVID-19 spread in other factories as well.   

Meanwhile, Health Ministry Spokesman Dr. Hemantha Herath told Daily Mirror that they were also aware of the incident and added the Ministry officials had already started investigations into the incident.   

• Commissioner General of Labour said it was also decided in a special meeting the necessity of monitoring the COVID-19 spread in other factories as well.