Rotary targets 1,000 companies for SLSI COVID-19 cover

Wednesday, 21 October 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It is reported that Sri Lanka has crossed 5,300 cases on COVID-19 with the Minuwangoda cluster crossing 2,000 patients.

Dr. Rohantha Athukorala

It is clear that Sri Lanka is moving to a community level spread post the Brandix cluster issue, said Rotary Stop the Spread Project Director – Sri Lanka and Maldives Dr. Rohantha Athukorala at the Rotaract Club Colombo East Installation.

“We must target 1,000 companies to be certified with the SLSI Certification process and reach at least 40% of households with the campaign by end of June 2021. Whist Rotary has done its best to support the Government on the management of COVID-19 we must interpret the reality where corporate events are banned in hotels, education sector moving back online, many parts of Sri Lanka being under Police curfew with trade activity at snail’s pace. Hence, our new positioning ‘Let’s Learn to Live with COVID-19,’” said Athukorala, urging the team to target a reach of 40% of households in Sri Lanka. The cutting edge theme came in the backdrop of WHO announcing that the world must learn to cope with the virus rather than opting for lockdowns and crippling economies. The new theme branded ‘Learning to Live with COVID’ under the Rotary project Stop the Spread has reached almost 20% of the households in Sri Lanka via 5,800 Interactors, 7,000 Rotaractors and 2,000 Rotarians with almost 300 being certified as ‘COVID Control Environments’ by the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI).

“It’s very important for us to change our behaviour,” said Governor for Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives Ajith Weerasinghe. “We must acknowledge all the national athletes, school athletes and the National Olympic Committee to partnering Rotary on this project on ‘New Normal Behaviour’ required which can be valued at over Rs. 1 billion that includes five Sri Lanka cricket captains, rugby captains, South Asian medallions and Commonwealth Games winners. This communication would have had some impact to behaviour but as the virus load is getting higher we must do more so that we can once again make Sri Lanka move to normal economic activity.”

“Apart from the communication campaign the 5,800 Interactors have visited the retail outlets and eateries in the vicinity of the schools which is as high as 750 fifty entities, and given them handwashing stations so that we can keep schoolchildren away from the COVID-19 virus,” said Athukorala.