Galle Additional Magistrate Pavithra Sanjeewani Pathirana on Thursday remanded until May 31, a garment factory manager in the Koggala Free Trade Zone who was produced before Court with alleged charges of violating the quarantine rules by not producing accurate details of close associates of COVID-19 affected persons of his factory and thereby allowing the pandemic to be transmitted.
Producing the suspect in Court, the Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) said that the garment factory employs about 1,500 people and after the conducting of PCR tests, 283 workers were identified as having been infected with COVID-19 and 733 first tier associates of them were sent for quarantine.
Under these circumstances, the garment factory is maintained on a daily shift basis and had been given instructions by PHIs on several occasions under the Quarantine Act. However, the factory manager had disregarded those instructions and acted in a manner that could lead to the spread of the disease by not providing information to first tier associates in violation of the quarantine regulations, PHI’s charged him in their prosecution.
The suspect had been charged under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Act No.3 of 1897. Habaraduwa PHI E.P.S Jayasiri and Achintha Samarasinghe of the Galle Municipal Council Public Health Inspector Chirantha Guruge prosecuted.
