21 October 2020 11:56 pm
The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) today warned that there is a high possibility of sub-clusters emerging from the Minuwangoda cluster could lead to a community transmission of COVID-19.
GMOA Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge told the Daily Mirror that the GMOA had requested the Epidemiology Unit to monitor the current situation on a daily basis or even twice a day.
“We requested the Epidemiology Unit to monitor the situation to identify whether the virus could lead to a community transmission or if it had already transmitted at the community level and if so to control the situation accordingly,” he said.
"If this situation leads to community transmission, it will be difficult to control. In other countries, the pandemic led to a community transmission and then controlling the spread was difficult,” Dr. Aluthge said.
“People have taken COVID-19 safety for granted. Therefore, there is a risk of the virus being transmitted at the community level. Therefore, the Government should take maximum measures to control the situation preventing a community spread,” Dr. Aluthge said.
“We are still at the stage of contact tracing of infected persons. The contact tracing will become impossible if sub-clusters emerged from various areas. To prevent that, we should go for zonal lockdowns,” he said.
“We are requesting the Epidemiology Unit to take necessary action at the right time to control the situation,” Dr. Aluthge added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)