Health

While saying that it will not be long before the hospitals are flooded with patients, completely inundated and the medical staff are stretched way beyond their capacity, resulting in a serious breakdown of our health sector, Medical Professionals demanded the Government to go for a two-week lockdown or curfew. In a statement, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) along with the Government Medical Officers Association, Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) and Sri Lanka Medical Intercollegiate Committee (SMIC) representing all medical professional colleges made the request to the Government. "As the current state of the infection is of very high transmissibility, it does not appear as if any of the steps implemented so far have been good enough or effective enough to achieve any kind of control of the infection," they highlighted. "It is known to scientists that when the detected number of cases in the community if over 3000, the actual number in the community is more than three times the number detected. When the infection is spreading this extensively, there is no country that has managed to contain the infection without a strict lockdown (or curfew) being declared. As such, while acknowledging the very significant short-term hardships the common man will have to face, we see no option other than a strictly implemented mobility restriction as an effective strategy that is left to contain the infection," they pointed out. Therefore, the Medical Professionals demanded the government to go for a two week (14 day) lockdown or even a curfew, continuously and at a stretch, of the entire country, considering the following scientific observations. In addition, they said a 14-day complete lockdown or a curfew at a stretch at this crucial juncture would have a much healthier impact on the economy, in the formal as well as the informal sectors, and the health sector, rather than isolating sections of the country randomly or by inter- provincial travel restrictions. "Upon completion of two weeks, while people will have to continue to adhere to public health measures with facial masks and social distancing , the Government will have to continue with the restrictions that have been stated at present over few more months," they added