ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka daily Coronavirus confirmations went past the 600 mark for the second day and home based patients are also rising health officials said warning the public to exercise more care and avoid large gatherings to avoid another lockdown.
Sri Lanka health authorities identified new 628 Covid patients on Friday (5), for the first time in 20 days and 617 on Saturday.
Health officials says complaints were received about functions held without adhering to the health guidelines, and many other large gatherings may have helped the virus to spread again.
“For the past few weeks we had complaints about many occasions that may have helped the virus to spread,” Director General of Health, Asela Gunawardena told reporters on Saturday (6).
Gunawardena said, with cases going down general public has relaxed and neglected to follow health guidelines.
“People are going for parties’, picnics, trips and they are enjoying,” Gunawardena said. “We know that they should enjoy but we should remember that we have open upcountry after a very difficult period sowe should not relax straight away.”
Malkanthui Galhena of Ministry of Health who oversees the home based treatment said, within a week the system has registered more than 1000 patients compared to the last two weeks of October.
“We had around three thousand patients in the system during last two weeks, but by this week it has increased up to around 4000 patients” Galhena told reporters.
“For the past 24 hours only we have 500 new patients”
Gunawardena said more control will come with the roll out of the booster dose. But if the is country to remain open and all other services to operate, the public should follow health guidelines strictly.
“We should adhere to the health guidelines at least another two three months until we get a good control of the disease,” Gunawardena said.
“As health sector or other sectors like tri forces or the police we cannot come behind each and every single person asking to wear masks and keep the distance and sanitize your hands or keep away from the crowded places. It is your responsibility to adhere to the health guideline.
“We regret to announce that behaviour like this may lead to implementing restrictions again.”
With the new patients, the total number of patients in the country increased to 544,630 cases with 15,877 active cases. (Colombo/Nov07/2021)