12 May 2021 12:39 pm
It is always easy and practical to increase the number of beds in hospitals, but we cannot increase the health service capacity at once, as it consumes more time to recruit and train people to work at the health services, Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID-19 Disease Control Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle said.
Addressing a news briefing at the Information Department today she said the country could face a critical situation, if the number of COVID positive cases go beyond the capacity level, but still, we have the health capacity to keep the pandemic situation under control, she said.
However, about 600 to 700 ICU beds are available in Hospitals and most of them are for other critical diseases. Only 190 beds are available for COVID cases, she said.
Therefore, the State Minister requested people to follow basic health guidelines to minimise the spreading of the virus.
While describing the vaccination programme, the Minister said there is a possibility of getting infected even being vaccinated. Vaccines only help to reduce the number of mortalities. The results after the vaccination will come into effect after two to three weeks or a month. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)