By Rathindra Kuruwita

The lockdown has had a positive impact on COVID control, Medical Technical Services Director Dr. Anwar Hamdani said yesterday. He said that a few weeks back close to 5,000 new cases had been reported daily, but now the number had dropped to below 3,000.

“You can imagine the impact 5,000 new cases a day was having on the health sector capacity. Now, we have to think of keeping this trend going. It’s easy to hit the target, but we need the cooperation of all to maintain the gains we have made,” he said.

Dr. Hamdani said in Sri Lanka, both public and private sector, had 39,322 beds to treat COVID-19 patients in 264 centres. 70% of these beds were now full, but not too long ago 97% of those beds were occupied, he said.

“A few weeks ago, there were 1,040 patients who needed oxygen, now that number has dropped to 802. However, we must not think that the trend will continue if we stop all the measures we are taking now. If people start taking precautions, we can maintain this,” he said.

Dr. Hamdani said that although the number of tests conducted had dropped, those who were suspected to have COVID-19 and those in high-risk areas were being tested. Even in developed nations testing had been reduced, he said.

“We have to make use of the resources available in the optimal manner. We have a successful vaccination drive going, we must identify people and we have to treat them. Before vaccines arrived, we could deploy more people for testing but now things have changed. We are making all these decisions based on science,” he said.

Commenting on the number of deaths due to COVID, Dr. Hamdani said that the positive effect of the lockdown was still not reflected in the death tally. Usually, a person who dies from COVID-19 passes away after a few weeks in hospital, he said.

“In a few weeks the number of deaths will drop and with vaccinations increasing, the number of deaths will further decrease as time goes by,” he said.