Don’t evade medical care fearing COVID patients: Doctors advise other patients

The people, who arrive at hospitals to seek medical treatment, should not be afraid of the fact that they could be exposed to Covid-19 patients, Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera said today.

Speaking to media, he said there was a system or process in place called ‘triage’ which would prevent normal patients or hospital staff members from interacting with patients with Covid-19 symptoms.   

“With this system, the patients with Covid-19 symptoms are identified at the Out Patient Department (OPD) itself. Such patients are immediately directed to a separate unit and treated accordingly,” Dr Samaraweera said.

“Therefore, patients, who arrive at hospitals to get treated, should not be afraid of exposure to Covid-19 as there is a proper mechanism in place to protect them from Covid-10 patients,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, Dr Samaraweera said prevailing issues with PCR testing in Sri Lanka, had now been sorted out and therefore the PCR tests are being carried out with the maximum capacity.

“There were delays in releasing the PCR tests results with the malfunctioning PCR machine at the Mulleriyawa Hospital in recent days. However, the machine has now been restored and examining of delayed PCR tests is underway,” he added. (Sheain Fernandopulle)