CMLS blames flaws in health guidelines for increase in Covid cases

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Flawed health guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health during the last few months has led to an explosive increase in COVID cases, College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS) President, Ravi Kumudesh told The Island yesterday.

Kumudesh said health officials believed that the threat posed by COVID was over after the number of deaths dropped due to vaccination.

“Now, Omicron is spreading fast. We can’t increase testing because we don’t have test kits. Grassroots level health officials have no one to talk to about the issues they face and the developments they see, as the Task Force on COVID has been dissolved,” he said.

Kumudesh said that the first Omicron cases here had been reported in December. A woman who had not been vaccinated, returned from an African nation with the variant, he said.

“She managed to go into the country due to lax health laws at the airport. Soon an Indian who came here to gamble tested positive for COVID. The Indian travelled all over and only was tested when he left the country. Health workers at the BIA detected a number of COVID cases with Omicron at the end of December. Unfortunately, most were detected while they were returning. This is what happened with Alpha and Delta variants too,” he said.