Include South Africa in red list, stagger reopening, don tells govt.

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Academic and physician, Professor Arjuna de Silva has urged the government to include South Africa in the red list of countries used in the airport.

Prof. de Silva is the Head of the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine University of Kelaniya and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA).

Prof. de Silva said that almost all vaccines were less effective against the South African variant and thus the government must prevent those infected with this particular variant from entering the country.

Prof. De Silva said that Sri Lanka should be very careful about foreign tourists.

“If you really want people in, bring people from China and the UK. Things are under control in those countries”, he said.

Prof. de Silva  also urged the government not to open up the country at once and to study the developments during the current travel restrictions to identify potential hotspots.

“Open the safe areas first and then open up the rest of the country. We need to increase testing to identify what is really going on. If we open up all areas at once, any gain we have made during the past two weeks will be wasted,” he said.