News

Vaccination alone not a magic bullet to end pandemic

Published

5 years ago

2021/09/2

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Vaccination was not a silver bullet, and it had to be supplemented by other initiatives to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Manuj Weerasinghe, Head of the Department of Community Medicine, University of Colombo, said.

Boosting immunity was vital for overcoming any virus, and vaccine played a big role in the fight against COVID-19, he said. However, vaccines alone were not the only way to overcome the pandemic, the Professor said.

“If we think we can get out through this crisis by vaccination alone, we won’t do the other initiatives needed, we won’t educate the people on what they really need to do, in fact we will give people the wrong idea that everything is good after getting vaccinated. Vaccination is important. It’s very clear that it saves lives and reduced the severity of the disease. However, vaccination won’t stop you getting infected or spreading it to others,” he said.

Prof. Weerasinghe said that the role and purpose of the vaccination was not properly understood by the people and when they got infected, after getting double jabbed, they assumed that the vaccine they had taken was not effective.

“This is why some people say on social media that they got the X vaccine and still they got COVID. They then go on to discredit the vaccine they had taken. This is bad for everyone. The government needs to communicate properly. Because of our over reliance on vaccine, both policy makers and the people are not doing what is needed to stop the pandemic,” he said.

Meanwhile Professor Chrishantha Abeysena, Senior Professor Department of Public Health, University of Kelaniya said when the decision to lockdown was taken too late; more time was needed to open the country again.

“As with everything in life, we have to make the call at the right time. I think everyone agrees that at least two weeks is needed for a lockdown to have some effect. However just because we imposed a lockdown doesn’t mean that things are going to work out fine, especially given that we are not seeing a strict lockdown,” he said.

Prof. Abeysena said that the government had to increase testing because there was community spread. Those infected needed to be found, they needed to be isolated along with their first contacts, he said.

“If we do this, we can get the pandemic under control. There is a WHO protocol on lockdowns and given that there is a community spread, the pandemic had become a social issue too. Hospital capacity is still a big problem,” he said,

Prof. Abeysena added that Sri Lanka now needed to figure out how it could operate after the lockdowns were lifted. The policy makers should come up with systems and protocols and communicate effectively with the general public, he said.

“If we don’t do this, there is no point in extending the lockdown even for another month. We also need to do testing and isolation. If we do this the numbers will drop and the health staff will get a breather. However, we must ensure that there are practical protocols after we open up. We are now at a disaster stage, although we had time to get ready. We have 18 months of living with the virus and we need to start learning lessons,” he said.

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News

Advisory for strong winds and rough seas for Multi-day boats in the Bay of Bengal

Published

4 hours ago

2026/09/19

Priyan

Navel and fishing communities engaging the activities over this sea area are advised to be vigilant

Advisory for strong winds and rough seas for Multi-day boats in the Bay of Bengal deep sea areas
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 05.00 p.m. 18 September 2026, valid for the next 24 hours.

PLEASE BE AWARE!
The atmospheric disturbance to the North of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, is likely to develop into a low pressure area within the next 24 hours.

Due to its influence, wind speed over the Bay of Bengal sea areas will increase during the next few days starting from
tomorrow (19th).

The wind speed in the sea areas marked under the “Advisory” category on the map below will increase to 55-65 kmph at times and those sea areas will be rough or very rough at times.

Navel and fishing communities engaging the activities over this sea area are advised to be vigilant and be attentive to the future forecasts and bulletins issued by the department of Meteorology in this regards.

News

Some NPP manifesto promises may be difficult to fulfil – CIABOC DG

Published

6 hours ago

2026/09/19

Thilina Walpola

Ranga Dissanayake (Director General CIABOC) at the BMICH on Wednesday

Text and Pic by Priyan de Silva

Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC) Ranga Dissanayake has questioned whether some promises contained in the National People’s Power (NPP) manifesto, A Thriving Nation – A Beautiful Life, could be fulfilled even if the government wanted to implement them.

Dissanayake raised the issue during a discussion following the release of the third biannual report on manifesto monitoring by the March 12 Movement, at the BMICH, on Wednesday.

He questioned whether the report had taken into account legal and institutional constraints affecting the implementation of certain pledges.

Citing the proposal to establish Anti-Corruption Investigation Offices in each district, Dissanayake said such offices could be established only with the agreement of CIABOC and that amendments to the Anti-Corruption Act would be necessary.

He also referred to the pledge to abolish the Executive Presidency, noting that successive governments had made similar commitments since 1994. He questioned whether there had been adequate consideration of where the powers vested in the Executive President would be transferred if the system were abolished.

On the proposal to establish a Public Prosecutor, Dissanayake questioned whether the Government intended to maintain the office alongside the Attorney General, who currently performs prosecution-related functions.

Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Manjula Gajanayake said Dissanayake’s remarks should be regarded as his personal views and not as Government policy.

Monitoring and Evaluation Consultants M. Thilakarajah and D.D. Mataharaarachchi presented the third-phase findings, covering January to June 2026.

News

Yoshitha and ex-Navy chief Karannagoda’s case fixed for PTC

Published

6 hours ago

2026/09/19

Thilina Walpola

The corruption case filed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) against former Navy Commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, and Yoshitha Rajapaksa was set for a pre-trial conference by the Colombo High Court.

The case was taken up before the Colombo High Court on Thursday (17), when the accused, who are currently out on bail, appeared before the court. After considering the submissions made, the court ordered that the case be called for a pre-trial conference.

The CIABOC had filed the case against the accused, alleging that a corruption offence was committed by sending Yoshitha Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, for training at the Royal Naval College in the United Kingdom despite him not having the required qualifications.