Cabinet approval has been granted to allocate Rs.300 million to the Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Ministry to purchase essential equipment to treat dengue patients.
According to the memorandums presented by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister Rajitha Senaratne, the Cabinet of Ministers granted permission to purchase essential equipment to treat dengue patients considering as an immediate procurement.
Approval was also granted for the immediate purchase of goods which are are available locally and to purchase other equipment through foreign missions.
The Cabinet of Ministers also granted approval to take various actions including the implementation of the instructions in the circular issued by the Presidential Secretary pointing out that the Department Heads are responsible of keeping their office environs free of dengue mosquito breeding sites, to implement dengue controlling programmes in schools, to follow the method of Western Province of deploying field officers for checking each household by the other provinces, to produce and publish short video clips and audio tracks by the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media for making aware the public of importance of preventing dengue disease.
Approval was also granted to train 2,000 Army personnel to provide treatment to dengue patients and also for Health Medical Officers, Local Government institutions, Divisional Secretariats and Police Stations to get involved dengue prevention programmes.
Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that the World Health Organisation appreciates Sri Lanka for reducing the dengue death ratio to 0.3 percent which is the lowest rate in the region.