Gaffor Building isolated, 200 SLN personnel quarantined as SLN Driver tests positive

Colombo (News 1st); Sri Lanka Navy refuting baseless information disseminating with regard to the recent coronavirus infected sailor accommodated at the Gaffor Building in Sir Baron Jayatilaka Mawatha, Colombo said, he was a Navy ambulance driver and accommodated at the venue and it belongs to the Welisara SLN cluster.

The Ministry of Defence said according to Sri Lanka Navy spokesperson Lt. Commander Isuru Sooriyabandara, some of the technical staff and ambulance drivers of the Welisara Navy Hospital were accommodated at the Gaffor Building since it was a timely need to separate them from the existing SLN virus spreading cluster and from the general public.

"They were housed away from the Naval premises, Welisara, and had been at the Gaffor building during non-working hours," he said.

Lt. Com. Sooriyabandara confirmed after the SLN ambulance driver tested positive for coronavirus, all sailors in the building had been directed for a 14-day quarantine process.

Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe said 200 Sri Lanka Navy personnel who were accommodated at the Gaffor building were moved into immediate quarantine.

The Gaffoor Building in Colombo has been declared as an isolated facility.

Navy spokesman Isuru Suriyabandara, urged the public to refrain from panicking, as all other navy personnel in the building were subject to quarantine.

Sri Lankan health authorities have identified three clusters of the virus in the island nation namely the Navy, expatriates who have returned to the country, and individuals who associated with the infected patients.