GR govt. made wrong decision to cremate COVID dead, RW govt. to apologize

Colombo, July 22 (Daily Mirror) -The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government made the wrong decision to forcefully cremate the COVID dead, after recent research found that the virus had not spread in the surface water.

In a cabinet paper released today, it stated that in July 2021, a study was commenced by the Ministry of Water Supply with the assistance of the University of Jayawardenapura to identify the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aquatic environments in Colombo and Kandy including the river water, the water released from the hospitals, other quarantine places and other potential places where the waste water was discharged. It was revealed in this studies that there is no virus in the surface water.

A second study was also completed in March 2024 by the China-Sri Lanka joint research and demonstration center for water technology under the Ministry of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development that investigated the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to water resources, including ground water, and it was confirmed that the faeces and urine were the primary sources of the transmission of the virus but not with safe burial. 

Accordingly, the cabinet of ministers has approved the joint proposal presented by the Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs, and Constitution Reforms, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development to plead an apology on behalf of the government to all the communities effected as a consequence of the compulsory cremation policy enacted in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic period.