By Saman Indrajith

UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday told Parliament that the pandemic was not an issue that should be politicised and all should extend their support to the government to save the lives of people.

“All of us must join hands to overcome this crisis. The Cabinet should act fast without leaving that responsibility to a task force appointed for this purpose. In that sense, I regret to say that I share the remarks made by the Director General of Health Services with regard to the performance of the Task Force and I agree with them.

He said that as per the latest reports, the Delta variant of the coronavirus was spreading fast the world over. “The spreading of the virus at this speed is in progress while we have started administering vaccines nationally. We still have no idea how this virus was spreading fast. We must take action immediately to prevent the South African strain of the virus entering this country.

“I am telling you all that we still can manage this crisis. There is no need to follow the procedures in emergency purchasing of oxygen. The government can bring it to parliament for approval. We will approve it. This is a national crisis. We as a nation have faced many crises in the past successfully. We can deploy our armed forces to streamline our approach to tackle the problem. Some hospitals are overflowing with patients. The army had its own field hospitals and if they were not sufficient they could set up such hospitals fast. The order should be given to the army and engineers to set up such hospitals. If we cannot find material we must use roofing sheets and cadjan to build temporary hospitals and reduce congestion in hospitals.

” The Prime Minister is here and those who acted in unison to help this country survive the tsunami disaster can recall that we could do so in a couple of days. Likewise, we all must join hands to overcome this crisis without trying to settle political scores.”