Lockdown, not Sinopharm immediate solution – SLMA

BY Rathindra Kuruwita

Sinopharm vaccine took six weeks to be effective and it did not provide an immediate solution to the current health emergency, President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) Dr Padma Sriyani Gunaratne said yesterday.

“With AstraZeneca there is some protection after two weeks, but you need the second dose. However, Sinopharm doesn’t work like that. You are given a second dose in four weeks after the first jab. Protection kicks in two weeks after the second jab. Even if we vaccinate all Sri Lankans this week, it will take six weeks for the vaccines to start working,” she said.

Dr. Gunaratne said that vaccines played a vital role in the fight against the virus in the long term, but the government needed to go for a lockdown to get the situation under control, she said.

“Moreover, we have given two doses of any vaccine to about 1% of the people. This isn’t an adequate number to offer protection to the community. Hopefully, we can speed up vaccination. But this doesn’t help us in the short term. “When people start falling sick in large numbers, it will be impossible to keep factories going even if the government tries to avoid lockdowns.”

Consultant Immunologist and head of the department of Immunology – MRI, Dr Nihan Rajiva de Silva said that in other countries around 2% of COVID-19 cases died. In Sri Lanka the number was at 0.6% because the health sector still had a grip on the situation.

“If we don’t control the situation, health staff will be overwhelmed,” he said.

These views were shared by State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, who said the people must remain indoors for at least two weeks to halt the spread of the pandemic.

“Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients may be in the community and spending too much time outdoors could expose people to the virus,” she warned.