The UNP has accused the government of failing to contain the ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus.

The party has urged the government to give full priority to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, and do it duty of ensuring the health and safety of the citizens of the country.

The UNP has, in a media statement, expressed its concern about what it calls the government’s delayed response in combatting the fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

“Despite repeated warnings of a pending second wave from the World Health Organisation, the government chose to propagate the idea that it had defeated the virus, without taking adequate steps to protect the citizens of the country from resurgence.

“The government failed to enact relevant legislation which would have bolstered the anti-COVID efforts. The lack of proper laws has resulted in the breakdown of the prevention methods as was seen last evening (29) when the citizens of Colombo left the city in large numbers ahead of the pending lockdown.”

The UNP has said the inability of the government to curb the movement of citizens from the Western Province has now endangered the citizens of the other Provinces in the country as well.

“In April this year Leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe and TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, drafted a Public Health Emergency Bill which was presented to the government. They have failed to act on this legislation, which has rendered them ineffective.

“The recent breakdown of a coronavirus mass testing machine will severely impact the government’s efforts to control the spread of the virus. Currently, it takes over five days for the results of the PCR tests conducted by the government to be made known; this delay has an impact on both the health and safety of the public as well as the economic activities of the country. The unavailability of machines to conduct tests will only serve to further delay the results of the PCR tests being conducted in the country.”

The UNP has said it is the responsibility of this government to have ensured adequate testing facilities were installed around the country to prevent delays. There is also a concern regarding a pending shortage of hospital beds and ventilators. The government must make all efforts to increase the capacity at the hospitals to accommodate patients from this second wave.