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Health Ministry mulling fines for ‘non-boostered’ 

28 Jan 2022

 
  • Legal Division studying the matter
  • Levying authority yet unclear
  • Fines among several proposals to make booster mandatory 
  BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Health Ministry’s Legal Division is currently studying the possibility of formulating a programme to levy fines from and on those who do not obtain the booster third dose of the US-German-manufactured Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.  This was confirmed to The Morning yesterday (27) by Health Ministry Communications Director, Public Health Services Deputy Director General, and Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Dr. Hemantha Herath, who said that it was being considered due to the rising number of Covid-19 infections. “It is very important for the people to obtain the booster third dose, especially if we want to carry out social and economic activities without closing the country, but if the people continue to refuse it, the booster third dose will have to be made mandatory. Towards that end, several proposals have been made, one of which is the imposition of a fine,” explained Dr. Herath. He further added that if such a fine is to be levied, attention should be paid to a number of factors such as which institution should charge the relevant fines and the amount of the fine. Without studying all such matters, he said, there would be no point in simply stating that a fine would be imposed.  “If possible, this can be added to the usual system of levying fines through the Police, but there have never been fines in the health sector, so this is not something that can be done immediately,” he added. Earlier in the week, Health Ministry Co-ordinator in charge of Covid-19 and Director – Medical Technological Services Dr. Anver Hamdani said that the Minister of Health has sought the advice of the Attorney General with regard to this. “Accordingly, we hope to work within a legal framework in the future based on that legal advice,” he said, adding that European countries as well as various developed nations are initiating legal procedures to make the third dose mandatory. On 5 January, the Italian Government decreed that people above 50 years in Italy who have not obtained the booster dose as of 1 February will be fined € 100. Sri Lanka is currently administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the booster third dose. According to the Epidemiology Unit, the health sector, as of 26 January, has administered a total of 5,018,241 booster third doses.  The number of Covid-19 infections reported daily in Sri Lanka has increased significantly over the past few days. Over the past few weeks, 600 to 700 cases of Covid-19 infections had been reported daily, but the highest number of Covid-19 infections recorded in the last few days was 927 on 26 January. In addition, 891 cases were reported on 25 January, 877 on 24 January, 838 on 23 January, 845 on 22 January, 840 on 21 January, 827 on 20 January, and 829 on 19 January. According to the Epidemiology Unit, as of 10 a.m. yesterday, Sri Lanka had recorded 15,346 Covid-19-related deaths while the total number of infections stood at 606,162, of which a total of 577,030 patients had recovered.


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