State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who has tested positive for Covid-19 did not attend Parliament week from January 5 - 8 and was also absent from House sittings during the third reading of the 2021 Budget on December 10, sources said yesterday.
They said, however, there is an issue since Jayasekara had associated with a few other MPs who had attended Parliament. The MPs who had associated with Jayasekara had not informed the Parliament authorities. According to sources, the Parliament authorities were not informed on Jayasekera’s health condition till Friday (January 8) evening.
Therefore, the health authorities should inform us about the whereabouts of the other MPs who associated with Jayasekara so that we can trace them. We might get some instructions from the health authorities tomorrow, they said.”
“Parliament is following the health guidelines but we have to get instructions from the health authorities with regard to this particular incident. If the health authorities mention the names of the MPs who had associated with State Minister Jayasekara then we could trace them and reach out to the other contacts as well”, the sources added.
A group of health officials had visited Parliament and met the Serjeant-at-Arms and inquired about the action taken by the Parliament authorities in such a situation. The health authorities had been satisfied with the health guidelines followed by Parliament. “The issue is if these parliamentarians are the first contacts of Minister Jayasekera then we could check on the places they had visited. We are hoping that the health authorities would provide more information to Parliament on the measures taken in this regard. First, we need to ask Jayasekara about the persons he had associated with. Jayasekara along with some SLFP stalwarts had also attended some public functions as well, the sources said.”
They added that according to the health guidelines, Parliament has decided to carry out random Polymereize Chain Reaction (PCR tests) for its employees. The random PCR tests have already been done on over 200 employees. Every week 20 to 25 employees are sent for random PCR tests.
Jayasekara is currently at a hotel operating as a Covid-19 quarantine centre in Hikkaduwa. He had attended a public event on January 4 which was attended by nearly 1,000 people. Jayasekara was subjected to a PCR test on January 7 night and was confirmed Covid-19 positive.