SLMA warns of imminent Covid outbreak, recommends countermeasures

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) has warned of dire consequences unless the government maintains stringent health guidelines in place to thwart another major Covid-19 eruption and adopt measures such as booster doses for high-risk groups.

The following is the text of statement issued by the President of the SLMA Dr. Padma Gunaratne: “While sincerely appreciating the decisions taken by your Government to mitigate the last wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, lessons learnt from the recent outbreaks in countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore and Israel compel us to believe that another wave is imminent, particularly now that movement restrictions have been lifted. As such, we consider it more important than ever before that precise steps are taken at this point of time within the context of the current regulations to prevent another surge of infections. Another wave of infections will be extremely deleterious to the health and the economy of the country.

We are pleased to recommend the following steps for implementation:

1. Stringent enforcement of current regulations by monitoring:

It is noted that although reasonable guidelines and regulations on public health measures have been issued by the Ministry of Health, the implementation of these measures is extremely lax, and that they are widely disobeyed by the public. Many do not adhere to wearing masks, and social distancing is not maintained in public places such as shops, markets, places of worship, and events such as funerals etc. We urge the Government to take adequate measures to enforce these regulations through a system of close monitoring and ensure that health regulations issued by the Director General Health Services are fully implemented.

2. Third dose/booster of Pfizer vaccine to priority groups:

It has been established that 7% of elders who received Sinopharm vaccine in Sri Lanka have not developed an adequate level of immunity against COVID-19. The re-opening of schools and lifting of mobility restrictions will significantly increase the risk of these elders contracting COVID-19 infection such as via their grandchildren, and they are more prone than other age groups to severe disease and death.

Furthermore, healthcare professionals are now completing six months following the last dose of their Covishield vaccine and their immunity levels will begin to wane. They will soon be at a greatly increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 infection.

As such, people over 60 years of age, patients less than 60 years with immune deficiency states and all healthcare professionals should be given a third dose / booster of the Pfizer vaccine without delay. This should be considered as one of the highest priority activities to prevent another wave of infections in the near future.

3 Continue with restrictions on super-spreader situations and events:

Crowded enclosed environments constitute super-spreader situations for COVID-19 infection. As such we earnestly request the government to delay for a further period of time the complete relaxation of regulations pertaining to public events by restricting numbers at weddings, religious events, funerals, musical shows, gatherings at clubs etc., in enclosed environments.

4. Sustain a high level of case surveillance by testing:

Early detection of a rise in infections would be extremely important if the next wave of infection is to be prevented. Careful surveillance would enable the government to take prompt action to prevent an escalation of the disease, again. As such strengthening the routine surveillance system for COVID-19 is of paramount importance. In this regard we request the Ministry of Health to maintain a high level of testing for COVID-19 including in the community, and to strengthen the ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Tract Infections’ (SARI) surveillance system in OPDs of all major hospitals.

We, at the Sri Lanka Medical Association remain committed to assist the government of Sri Lanka in all your endeavours to safeguard the health of the nation. ”