Dear Students,
I am uploading this letter from VC to make you
aware on situation and to remind you the importance of maintaining
strict sanitary practices.
Professor Vasantha Devasiri
MBBS (Ruh), DCH (Col), MD (Col), FSLCP
Dean Faculty of Medicine,
University of Ruhuna.
Dear All
Today
we had a situation where a Nursing student in year 3 went home on the
week end as a routine home visit. Another student has reported that the
particular students father has been working in a ship , underwent
quarantine period of 14 days at Boossa camp, went home for home
quarantine for 14 days. It is during this period that the Nursing
student went home to see the father.
Now
she will be coming back to work after the week end. recently a case of
COVID 19 was detected in Chilaw in a pregnant woman during the home
quarantine period although this is rare.
I
have had to discuss this situation in the context of her coming back to
institution with a larger number of students, doing clinical training
with exposure to patients, etc.
I
have instructed the Dean FAHS to not allow her to come back to FAHS for
7 days and then if father is asymptomatic do the PCR on her and take
her back to work. I took this decision after discussion with the Chief
Epidemiologist of MOH although the guidelines for civilian population of
family members of home quarantine people are slightly different from my
decision.
If
I do not take firm measures we will be soon losing control of the
situation as this kind of instances tend to cause even one case of COVID
19 and it will be an outbreak of one case with a large number to have
anxiety.
Could
you please put this up on LMS for the students to know, take
responsibility for their behavior, use SMS -Sanitizer, Mask, .Social
distancing. Then the risk would be very low even if their colleagues
behave irresponsibly.
Thank you
Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena MBBS(Ruhuna)
MD(Colombo), DCH (Colombo), DCH (Sydney)
Vice Chancellor and Senior Professor in Paediatrics
University of Ruhuna
Matara
Sri Lanka