Covid second wave because Govt. said it was over – Opposition

By Imesh Ranasinghe

The Parliamentary Opposition is charging that the general public let down their guard against the Covid-19 pandemic because the government officially stated that the virus has been eliminated in Sri Lanka as more reports of positive patients were announced.

Several more factories were closed, and reports of Covid positive patients were reported from several locations as it appeared that the virus was gaining ground on the island.

Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella took on the Health Minister in Parliament today saying she had said last month that Sri Lanka has successfully eliminated COVID from the community.

Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi had made the statement despite the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) and the Medical Research Institute (MRI) stating that the problem was not over, Kiriella said.

Wanniarachchi told reporters at the time that Sri Lanka can be considered as a country which was able to successfully eliminate COVID-19 from the community.

Kiriella charged that the government, unfortunately, wanted to take political credit until the elections were over that COVID-19 was successfully eliminated which led the people to take the virus lightly.

“The general public trusted what the government said and did not follow proper protective measures,” he added.

Replying Kiriella, Health Minister Wanniarachchi said that she made that statement at that time based on several facts.

She said that generally COVID-19 is determined based on four stages, stage one where there are no cases in the country, stage two where cases appear from here and there in the country and their contacts can be found, stage three where patients are found as clusters and stage four where patients are found all around the country source of the virus cannot be found.

She added at the time she made this statement the Lankapura patient was found and over 25,000 PCR tests where done in the community. (ECONOMYNEXT)