COVID-19: GMOA alerts country to grave threshold

By Rathindra Kuruwita

About 700 to 800 COVID-19 cases were detected when around 13,000 PCR tests were done, Editor of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), Dr. Haritha Aluthge said yesterday, adding that it was a serious situation.

Dr. Aluthge said that although the Health Ministry claimed that it had the capacity to conduct between 15,000 and 20,000 PCR tests, only around 13,000 were carried out daily.

“There have been media reports that certain testing facilities were underutilised. We don’t know what’s going on here. There have been five consecutive days when over 800 cases were reported daily.

Dr. Aluthge said that over 150,000 frontline workers had already been vaccinated and that the target of 250,000 could be reached within a week.

A number of people who received the vaccine had complained about mild side effects, the GMOA official added.

“The effectiveness of a vaccine can never be 100%. The Covidshield vaccine is around 80% effective. Even with the other 20%, the Covidshield vaccine greatly reduces the possibility of deaths and complications.”