The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a committee to review proposed amendments to the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance of 1897, the law that still governs how Sri Lanka responds to communicable disease outbreaks.
The decision followed a proposal by the Minister of Health and Mass Media, Ada Derana reported. The committee will study the draft amendments already prepared and recommend the revisions needed.
A law from the plague era
Ordinance No. 3 of 1897 remains the country’s principal legal instrument for preventing the introduction and spread of infectious disease. It was enacted to guard against plague arriving by sea, and it works by empowering the Minister of Health to make, vary and revoke regulations — over quarantining vessels, aircraft and boats, disinfecting goods, and restricting the landing of people and cargo.
Almost the entire architecture of Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response, including curfews and isolation orders, was built on regulations issued under this Ordinance rather than on purpose-written pandemic legislation.
The government’s case for change
The Cabinet paper argues that the risk of cross-border disease transmission has risen with the growing movement of people, goods and services, and with increased international travel and trade.
The stated aim is a legal framework capable of handling both current and emerging infectious disease threats, with the committee directed to take account of the lessons of recent pandemics.
This has been tried before
The most significant detail in the announcement is that Cabinet already approved amending the Ordinance in 2016 — and the resulting amendment Bill was never presented to Parliament.
That means the draft amendments the new committee will examine are the product of a reform effort that stalled roughly a decade ago, before the pandemic that exposed the law’s limits. Ada Derana did not say why the 2016 Bill was never tabled, whether the existing drafts predate COVID-19, or how far they will have to be rewritten.
Context
The review lands while the health system is managing an active communicable-disease burden. Dengue transmission has run at elevated levels through the year, with more than 10,000 cases recorded in August alone and control programmes ordered in schools ahead of the new term.
What was not reported
No timeline was given for the committee’s work, and its membership, chair and reporting deadline were not announced. Ada Derana did not say whether the review will produce a fresh Bill or revise the 2016 draft, whether the Ordinance will be replaced outright, or when any legislation might reach Parliament.
Update: Hiru confirms the decision and the 2016 stall
Hiru News carried the Cabinet decision separately on Tuesday, giving the same account and independently confirming the detail that matters most: Cabinet approval to amend the Ordinance was granted in 2016 and the revised bill was never presented to Parliament.
Hiru named the law as the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance, No. 3 of 1897, and described it as the primary law governing both the prevention of infectious disease entering and spreading in Sri Lanka and the regulation of quarantine activities. It gave the same rationale — the growth in international travel and foreign trade raising the risk of transmission — and said the committee will incorporate the lessons of recent global pandemics.
Neither outlet named the committee’s members or chair, set a reporting deadline, or explained why the 2016 bill was never tabled.
