Freelance workers are also rapidly falling victim to the third wave of the covid epidemic. covid has now infected workers in a number of garment factories and factories across the island.
The second wave of Kovid was started by Brandix in Minuwangoda. It was revealed that the employees worked even when they were ill. Although the Labor Department and the CID have launched an investigation into the incident, people still does not know what happened to them.
Against such a backdrop, the third wave of covid is coming and preying on maids. The tragedy here is that the positive people associated with these garment zones are being referred to other parts of Sri Lanka for treatment.
The situation is similar in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone. While covid was expanding at a well-known garment factory in Katunayake, other employees were employed there. There was a woman I knew who had a fever for three days. She told the agency she was ill, but they did not respond. So she did a PCR test with her personal money. It was revealed that she had contracted Kovid.
Accordingly, she was taken to the covid Treatment Hospital in Maradamuna, Kalmunai on the 12th. There are Muslims in this area. Most of the work in the hospital is also done by a Muslim staff. Here she is in great difficulty with regard to food. She once told me over the phone that the food provided by the hospital was the kind that all Muslims get and that she was hungry because she could not eat it.
Meanwhile, she had called an online supermarket and tried to get bread, biscuits, etc., but failed due to their refusal to come to the hospital. She is now more depressed than covid. It is said that the institution has not inquired about her till date.
Another girl who worked in the Biyagama Free Trade Zone said that she was first taken to the covid Treatment Center in Wathupitiwala after contracting Kovid. She said that she was taken back to the Kopay covid Treatment Center in Jaffna until late at night due to lack of space and that she was still very tired due to travel fatigue.
There, too, they had to wait in line to get water, and the food provided was like water and rice, she added.
Also, at the Bindunuwewa covid Treatment Center in Bandarawela recently, an army chief had brutally assaulted an infected person for asking for water.
It is said that some people in Polonnaruwa are starving because they do not eat the rice that is mostly served at the centers in Polonnaruwa. He also said that it was too late to serve lunch and that some food had gone bad.
While they were saying that, I heard a completely different story from the covid Treatment Center in Ampara. A friend of mine was at the covid Treatment Center in Ampara with covid infection.
He is a resident of Ampara and according to him the hospital is a former mental hospital. Now Kovid has been turned into a treatment center. He said that it was very clean and that the hospital was close to a lake and that they could go out and enjoy the free air and that the food and drink were in good condition. He said with a laugh that he could go in 10 days but stay there for 14 days without taking any risks. Also, the specialty here is that a doctor always comes and talks kindly.
Also in another district, a man at a covid treatment / intermediate treatment center said that the men there even had access to alcohol.
So where is the problem? In the center administration?
However, in recent days, the problems of these Kovid treatment centers have continued to circulate even on social media.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Special Action Task Force on Immediate Decisions on the current Covid Suppression Program took an important decision yesterday (17). The decision was made to refer the infected people to the nearest treatment centers and intermediate centers where they are infected with the covid 19 virus and give them the treatment they need.
The decision was made after focusing on the severe stress that affects him and his family when they become infected. The COVID-19 Special Operations Performance Committee should be commended for delaying or making this decision.