Attorney General Dappula De Livera directed the Acting IGP to inform him immediately about the investigating team appointed to probe the spread of COVID-19 from the Minuwangoda Brandix cluster.

Attorney General’s Coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said the AG had requested for information, as it appears that no police investigation had commenced yet.

On October 27, the Attorney General gave instructions to the Acting IGP to transfer the criminal investigation probe into the Brandix cluster from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and to appoint a special investigating team from other units to investigate as certain CCD officers were recently tested positive for COVID -19.

On October 28, the Attorney General directed the Acting IGP to immediately begin a criminal investigation into the Brandix cluster and ordered to submit a preliminary progress report on the investigation on or before November 13.

A 39 year old employee at the Minuwangoda Brandix factory was first detected in a random test as the origin of the second wave of COVID-19 on October 4 after almost five months since the island wide curfew was lifted.

Thereafter, aggressive contact tracing within the first week revealed that close to 1,034 Brandix staff at the factory were infected.

At present 412 employees of the Minuwangoda Brandix have fully recovered from the virus and discharged from hospitals while 2,024 infected persons identified as the nearest associates have recovered and released after completion of their quarantine process.