COVID outbreak: Impose constructive lockdowns; isolating GN Divisions unwise: AMS

The current practice of isolating communities at the GN division level is neither preserving economic activity nor controlling transmission of COVID, Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) said.

The AMS requested President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to impose constructive lockdowns at least at district level to restrict people’s movement with immediate effect.

In a letter to the President, AMS President Dr. Lakkumar Fernando said they believe that the time is ripe to revisit Sri Lanka’s management strategy of COVID before it rages out of control.

"Preliminary predictive disease modelling done by WHO in Geneva recently, with the assumption that the current trend of the disease will continue without any public health interventions, Sri Lanka would most likely be reporting 10,000 cases daily within the next three weeks," he pointed out.

"If that happens, we can expect the number of deaths to exceed 100 per day. If the country reaches this ‘tipping point’ with the disease spiraling out of control, it would be extremely difficult to recover from that point," Dr. Fernando stressed.

Moroever, he said there are two challenges to the vaccination drive.

"One is the issues associated with quick access to safe and effective vaccines to cover at least 65-70% of the population with two doses. The time taken for vaccines to provide protection has been widely accepted to be at least three weeks after the second dose. Pending protection from the vaccines, which is the key pillar supporting the fight against Covid, public health interventions to restrict people’s movements should be the most important tool to avert a disastrous outcome during this critical period," he underlined. (Sheain Fernandopulle)