Local Issues

The gazette on allowing the burials of COVID-19 deceased has been sent to the department of government printing, minister S.M. Chandrasena has said. He said that health minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi had conveyed this matter during a party leaders meeting held on Thursday. “The technical committee has declared that the bodies of COVID-19 deceased from the Muslim community can be buried,” …

State Minister Sudrashani Fenandopulle said today, the Prime Minister’s proposal to allow the burial of COVID-19 victims would have to be implemented with the agreement of the Technical Committee of the Health Ministry. Responding to a question raised by SJB MP Mujibur Rahuman, she told Parliament that the Health Ministry was not taking decisions personally but through a technical committee. …

People who die of COVID-19 would be allowed to be buried, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said today. The Prime Minister said this in parliament in response to a question raised by SJB MP S.M. Marikkar. MP Marikkar said State Minister Sudarshani Fernandopulle, who responded to a question raised by MP Rohana Bandara, told Parliament yesterday that COVID19 is not transmitted …

At time of a pandemic, the issue of creamation or burial is neither religious nor political, but scientific.  This is in response to the opinion expressed by Tharindu Dananjaya Weerasinghe in The Island of 13 January, on the burial issue. The writer argues that the issue of cremation, or burial, should not be decided by politics or by religion. In …

While saying that US stand with all families who have lost loved ones to this Covid-19 pandemic, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B. Teplitz said their rights and dignity should be respected by permitting the observance of their faith in accordance with international public health guidelines. “Ratified by Sri Lanka in 1955, UDHR Article 18 states that everyone has …