Spike in coronavirus cases among children admitted to LRH

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The number of children admitted to Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) with COVID-19 had increased during the last five to six days, Hospital Director, Dr. G Wijesuriya said.

Dr. Wijesuriya said there were about 35 children now warded there with the disease.

“We urge parents to be vigilant about their children. Be careful if they develop any symptoms,” Dr. Wijesuriya said, adding that since most adults were vaccinated, they might not show symptoms. However, they could transmit the virus to children who were vaccinated.

Deputy Director General of Health Services, Dr. Hemantha Herath told The Island yesterday that there were no large asymptomatic COVID clusters. However, that didn’t mean that Sri Lanka was out of danger, he said.

“If there are many asymptomatic cases, there should also be a rise in hospitalisations. We saw this last year, when the number of cases rose, the number of hospitalisations also rose,” he said.

Dr. Herath added that although Omicron had not spread rapidly in the country up to now, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t spread in the coming weeks.

“In some other countries, new variants quickly assert dominance. However, I have always said that when a new variant enters Sri Lanka, it takes a while for it to establish itself and then start multiplying. This was the same case with Alpha and Delta. So, we can’t say we won’t be affected by Omicron,” he said.

The Deputy Director General of Health Services added that despite vaccination, those with underlying medical conditions and those who were weak could get severe forms of COVID and some of them would die. Thus, it was the responsibility of the healthy and the active people to ensure that the weak and the sick were not exposed to the virus.

“The best way to tackle this is to get vaccinated and follow health guidelines,” he said.