15 May 2021 12:00 am
Due to high number of kidney patients
By Kumara C. Liyanaarachchi - Digamadulla
Ampara Divisional Epidemiologist Dr. Aruna Egodawatta said that kidney patients are reported from Dehiattakandiya, Ampara, Lahugala, Padiyatalawa and Mahaoya in Ampara District with the majority of patients reported from Dehiattakandiya.
Sixty per cent of 66,750 residents from Dehiattakandiya Divisional Secretariat were screened for kidney disease. Out of them, 2,000 people have been identified as kidney patients. There is a total of over 3,500 kidney patients in seven Divisional Secretariats in Ampara District.
The largest spread of COVID-19 in Ampara District was reported concurrently with the third wave and in Ampara Divisional Secretariat alone 1,076 patients have been reported during the period from April 15 to date. 60 patients are reported from Dehiattakandiya to whom blood transfusion is given, and eight weeks have passed since the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 57 of them under the first step. They would be vaccinated again with the completion of the ten weeks, he added.
He also said that 64 patients to whom blood is transfused through Medical Offices of Health in Ampara have been given the two doses of the vaccine. There are more than 2,000 kidney patients in Dehiattakandiya and giving them the vaccine has not been possible so far amidst the urgent need to do so. By now six kidney patients and family members of several kidney patients have contracted Covid and therefore those kidney patients are at a higher risk, he added.
He said that the number of COVID-19 patients in Ampara District is increasing every day and steps have been taken in this regard through Divisional Medical Offices of Health.
The attention has been drawn to conducting vaccination programmes in Ampara District in the upcoming days to prevent the spread of the disease.