Diagonosed COVID cases decline, not eliminated: Dr. Herath

The number of reported diagnosed COVID-19 cases has gone down, but the virus has not come to an elimination stage, Deputy Director of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said.

He told the Daily Mirror that people have undergone the COVID-19 sixteen million primary immunizations, completed the fourteen million second immunization processes, and eight million third immunization.

"With the completion of the immunisation doses, there is a reasonable immunity level in the community. Therefore, the virus in the community is under control. If we continue with the current immunisation rate in the community, the virus will continue to be under control," he said.

"The number of cases reported daily has declined, but it could increase. This has to be continued at a manageable level if we continue to adhere the health guidelines.

If we want to see COVID virus is completely eliminated from the country, see need to wait until zero cases are reported for a period of three to four years. We adopted the similar procedure to declare that malaria had been completely wiped out from the country. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)