SLMA urges Govt. not to lift lockdown on 21

 The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) urged the President to maintain the existing lockdown measures indefinitely, claiming that releasing the lockdown even for a few days will worsen the COVID-19 situation, increasing the number of patients and inflicting unacceptable death.

The government has declared that the current travel restrictions would be eased from June 21 to June 23, and then re-imposed from June 23 to June 25.

The SLAM stated relaxing the curfew will return the country to the catastrophic epidemic situation that existed in April this year in a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.“Every day, more than 2000 new cases and roughly 50 deaths are reported in the country. To make matters worse, there is evidence that the Delta version of the COVID-19 virus is circulating in the community. This variety is 50% more transmissible than the currently dominant version, according to the SLMA.

“As a result, even if the current lockdown is lifted for a few days, uncontrolled free movement of people would occur, resulting in an alarming increase in transmission and quick spread of the new type.As a result, the epidemic will reach historic proportions, resulting in an increase in the number of cases and unacceptable death on a scale that might utterly overwhelm the health system,” it said.

Meanwhile, the SLMA stated that if the lockdown is to be eased, it must be done in a carefully managed manner on a district-by-district basis, based on credible real-time data at the district level, rather than across the country.

“As a result, the SLMA and the SLMA Inter-Collegiate Committee (SMIC) are in the process of developing a "exit strategy" that will be handed over to the government this week, where district level Community Physician Committees will be established to analyze good quality real-time data and decide on the level of mobility restriction within the district on the basis of several relevant factors.