Medical specialists frown on queues near liquor outlets

The Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) yesterday urged the government to introduce a safer mechanism to enable consumers to purchase what they wish without endangering the lives of the entire nation.

AMS President Dr. Lakkumar Fernando and General Secretary Dr. R. Gnanasekeram have said in a media statement said: We witnessed a large number of consumers impatiently queuing up to buy liquor yesterday, violating all the travel restrictions and social distancing rules imposed by the government to control this deadly delta dominant COVID 19 pandemic.

We do appreciate the dire need of the government to collect revenue to state coffers to meet ends. At the same time, we are not ignorant of the rights of legitimate dealers and consumers of the trade although the ill-effects of alcohol consumption are well documented.

However, as a professional organisation we feel that it is our prime duty to forewarn any impending threats at this crucial juncture where we have just started to witness a downward trend of this deadly disease. We feel that any gatherings of this nature leading to HUMAN to HUMAN contact will act as a focus of another cluster. These gatherings do remind us of the very way people started behaving to collect the infamous “Peniya” introduced by a quack.

While cautioning the government of the possible hazards that could be created by such gatherings, we urge the government to introduce a safer mechanism to enable consumers to purchase what they wish, without endangering lives of the entire nation.

Finally, we urge authorities to take all the possible measures to minimize human to human contact during this critical period as we don’t want to lose any gains we achieved so far with all the sacrifices of the entire nation.