News
Health system’s capacity for crisis weakening at alarming rate: JVP

By Saman Indrajith
The country’s health system is on the verge of collapse as the hospitals are bulging at the seams with rapid increasing of COVID-19 patients, immediate future would be very bleak as the health system’s capacity of treating patients is weakened daily, said the JVP on August 19.
The immediate future would be very bleak as the health system’s capacity of treating patients is weakened daily, they said.
Addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters in Pelawatte, JVP politburo member and former Kalutara District MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa said that time has come to exert pressure on the government to take actions to prevent further deaths.
“We are at the threshold of the worst stage of the pandemic. As at noon today (19), the number of infected in the hospitals have exceeded 45,000 mark. This same situation was experienced in the US, India, Indonesia and Italy at the first wave of the pandemic. Their health systems collapsed as the number of patients exceeded the capacity of those systems. Not only the physical infrastructure including ICUs, oxygen and ventilators but also human resources – the hospital staff members including doctors, are not sufficient to meet the requirement. On the other hand, doctors and nurses are now infected. For example 28 staff members including eight doctors of the Homagama hospital have been infected. Of those eight doctors, four were attached to the ICU. As at Wednesday, 265 staff members including 27 doctors and 105 nurses of the National Hospital in Colombo were among the infected. Since the nursing staff members were infected, the hospital cannot maintain their duty shifts. As per countrywide reports, there were more than 200 doctors and 4,000 nurses infected. Around 40 PHIs and hundreds of para-medics and health supportive service staff members are infected by the virus.
“As of now several health assistant workers and doctors have lost their lives. The situation indicates that the immediate future would be very bleak as the health system’s capacity of treating patients is weakened daily. There are variants of the virus and mutated variants too among us. The government should take immediate action to close this country down. Instead of doing the right thing the government is doing what it wants to do. Even ten parties within the government have asked the President to go for a lockdown. The rulers have their children abroad and may think that nothing happening here would have an impact on them so they keep the country open. We are losing lives that could have been saved. We call on people to go for self-lockdowns without waiting for the government to declare lockdowns,” Dr Jayatissa said.
Foreign News
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dies aged 100

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age 100.
He served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations.
In a statement, Kissinger Associates, a political consulting firm he founded, said the German-born former diplomat died at his home in Connecticut but did not give a cause of death.
During his decades long career, Mr Kissinger played a key, and sometimes controversial, role in US foreign and security policy.
Born in Germany in 1973, Kissinger first came to the US in 1938 when his family fled Nazi Germany. He became a US citizen in 1943 and went on to serve three years in the US Army and later in the Counter Intelligence Corps. After earning bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees, he taught international relations at Harvard.
In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon appointed him National Security Adviser, a position which gave him enormous influence over US foreign policy in two administrations.
(BBC)
News
Rupees 1,500 million allocated for ‘Greater Kandy Urban Development Program’ – State Minister for Provincial Councils and Local Government

State Minister for Provincial Council and Local Government Janaka Wakkambura participating in a Press Briefing held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) on Wednesday (29) under the theme ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’, announced that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has allocated Rs. 1,500 million for the “Greater Kandy Urban Development Program” in this year’s budget and that part of the allocation would to be utilized to develop the approach roads to Kandy City.
He also announced that the President had allocated Rs. 1,000 million to develop tourism by enhancing facilities through the involvement of local government bodies.
News
DMT unable to print nearly one million driving licences for want of blank cards

Racketeers thrive on illegal printing of DLs
By Shiran Ranasinghe
The Department of Motor Traffic was unable to print about 900,000 driving licences due for want of blank plastic cards, Commissioner General of the Department of Motor Traffic Nishantha Weerasinghe told The Island.
He said his Department was doing its best to solve the problem, which could be sorted out in six months or so.
A senior official on condition of anonymity said the Department now printed about 200 driving licences for those who were going abroad or engaged in essential services.
However, some racketeers were printing about 700 licences illegally, he said.
Rs 5,000 each was charged for issuing illegally printed licences, the official said.
Commenting on the allegations, the Commissioner General of the Department of Motor Traffic said he will investigate the matter if he receives a complaint officially.
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