Country on verge of community spread, warns GMOA

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sri Lankan health sector would plunge into a crisis if a cluster larger than the one found at the Peliyagoda Fish Market emerged, Editor of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA,) Dr. Haritha Aluthge said.

Currently, Sri Lanka was dealing with several active COVID-19 clusters, Aluthge said. “The first was the Minuwangoda cluster, followed by the Peliyagoda Fish Market cluster. Clusters emerged from Agalawatte, Kuliyapitiya and now Kahathuduwa. All these clusters are still active. If we have another large cluster like the one at the Fish Market, we will be in serious trouble,” he said.

The relevant officials had a responsibility to ensure that other new clusters didn’t emerge, he said. “Every day close to 500 cases were detected and it was also obvious that most of the new detections were not directly linked to the Minuwangoda or Peliyagoda clusters.”

Dr. Aluthge said the country was on the verge of a community spread and unless drastic action was taken to curb the spread, the health system would be overwhelmed. If Sri Lanka reached the community spread stage, ICUs and hospitals would not be sufficient and deaths would rise exponentially, he said.

Three COVID-19 patients died on Monday bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 19.

On Monday, Head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama warned that if the situation was not brought under control urgently, the people who were prone to complications with pre-existing conditions would be in danger.

“This is what we saw on Tuesday. Those who died either had a pre-existing condition or were old. We have a lot of people with non-communicable diseases in this country. That is why health professionals have been urging those in power to take steps to curb NCDs.”