Country still not out of the woods, but things will be under control by November or December

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sri Lanka was still in the middle of the pandemic, but the situation was likely to improve after January 2022, Dr. Manuj C. Weerasinghe, Head Department of Community Medicine, University of Colombo said yesterday.

“Since April 2021, we have been facing the third wave of the pandemic. We haven’t really come out of this yet but there are signs that we should be able to get things under control by November or December,” he said.

Dr. Weerasinghe said that the country had made rapid progress in vaccination and that the number of serious cases and deaths would decrease significantly three weeks after 75% of the total population was double-jabbed

“We have inoculated around half the country but it hasn’t been three weeks since a large number of them have had the second dose of the vaccine. The COVID vaccine doesn’t guarantee that people won’t get it, but any vaccine greatly reduces the chances of serious complications and death. I think most people can live with mild symptoms. The most sensitive aspect of the pandemic is the daily death rates and those in ICUs,” he said.