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IHP places daily coronavirus infections at 2,000
By Rathindra Kuruwita
At least 2,000 persons contract Covid-19 a day, in Sri Lanka, Executive Director of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya says.
Dr. Rannan-Eliya yesterday said that the country should take immediate steps to reduce the transmission of the virus to prevent major future outbreaks that were likely to occur after the gradual decline in immunity acquired from vaccines.
Responding to a question posed by The Island on the detection of several COVID-19 positive schoolchildren, Dr. Eliya said outbreaks would be inevitable in schools.
“This is nothing unexpected. We continue to have widespread transmission in the community. I am sure there are at least 2000 plus new infections a day, most of which go undetected. Children are not vaccinated either. Schools could be pandemic hotspots,” he said.
Dr. Eliya said that while he expected transmission to be rapid among the youth right now, Sri Lanka should also be expecting a spike in deaths in elderly in time to come.