Govt. responsible for escalating Covid mortality among elders: Rathnapriya

National Trade Union Front Chairman Saman Rathnapriya today alleged that the Government should take the whole responsibility for the escalation of Covid mortality among senior citizens, as it has failed to prioritise vaccinating the people who are above 60 years of age as instructed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He said the WHO had initially instructed the Health Ministry to prioritize the vaccinating the people above 60 years of age, as they face a high risk of falling prey to the killer virus.

He told a news conference that neither the Health Ministry nor the Government acted on the instructions of the WHO and pointed out the Government started vaccinating people above 30 instead.

“More than 70 senior citizens are falling prey to Covid daily. This is because they were not vaccinated at the appropriate time as instructed by the WHO. Mortality among senior citizens has escalated due to the delay in vaccinating them,” he charged.

Mr. Rathnapriya said the Health Ministry was responsible for manipulating the instructions given by the WHO and added that the Ministry was also at fault. “The Ministry should provide proper guidance to the Government to carry out the vaccination drive. If the Government was not acting on the guidance of the Health Ministry, they should reveal it to the people,” he said.(Ajith Siriwardana)