Growing resurgence of COVID leads to pointing fingers once again

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Everyone had to work together to prevent COVID-19 spread in the school system, Head of the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry Dr. Samitha Ginige said yesterday.The Chief Epidemiologist said that there had been a gradual increase in COVID-19 cases during the last two weeks.

“And during the last five to six days, there have been about 100 cases a day. The situation is not grave yet and there is no reason to say that things have gone out of control,” he said.

Dr. Ginige said there was no evidence to say that there was a community spread, but all stakeholders had to unite to ensure that the spread was contained.

“We will be in trouble if there is a community spread,” he said.

“If there are many cases, it will be hard to keep schools open. No one wants to close schools again. Children have already lost a great deal of schooling. We must do everything in our power to keep schools open. Take the vaccines, wear masks and follow the health guidelines properly,” he said.

Secretary of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Dr. Haritha Aluthge accused the Health Ministry and other relevant officials of not taking the spread of COVID seriously.

“The Health Ministry isn’t doing what is necessary. They are not doing enough tests and necessary information is not made available to the public. We don’t even know the geographical spread of those infected. Even with limited testing we detect about 150 cases a day,” he said.

Dr. Aluthge said that Sri Lanka was not in a position to afford another lockdown due to its economic situation. Therefore, the government must be proactive in curtailing the spread of COVID, he said.

“The government can’t wait and blame everything on the people when things go wrong,” he said.