Under fire GMOA makes hurried changes to its COVID-19 Exit Strategy

Saturday, 18 April 2020 13:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government Medical Officers‘ Association (GMOA) has made hurried made changes to its exit strategy for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka after it came under fire for advocating racial profiling as part of the methodology for its implementation.

The GMOA had uploaded the document titled “GMOA/ICTA’s concept paper on COVID-19 Exit Strategy” yesterday, but by this morning the references it had made specifying that the Muslim population be mapped and identified in the data was deleted. The reference to the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) too was omitted from the new document uploaded on its website this morning.

The GMOA drew harsh criticism over social media following the initial release of the document, with a senior ICTA official taking to Twitter to distance the agency from the release.

ICTA Board Member Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, said the agency was never shown this document, nor did it consent to being co-authors of this document. “The idea of using the Muslim population to make this decision is utterly preposterous and disgusting,” Weerawarana said expressing his personal opinion.

As per the GMOA, the exit strategy recommends that the country be categorised under three main zones, namely, Sterile, Contaminated, and Buffer zones.

The report then goes on to spell out the criteria for these three zones and the governance structure within every zone. It is here that the problems arise, as the original concept paper proceeds to list the “Muslim population” as one of the variables in tracking the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, alongside other variables such as number of coronavirus cases, number quarantined and population density. There is no reference to any other ethnic or religious group.

“Both patients and quarantined individuals including their locations based on latitude and longitude are considered,” adds the report.

The GMOA has kept the paper open for suggestions which can be emailed to [email protected] on or before 22 April 2020 with the subject line “EXIT STRATEGY”.