News
How do we move forward: All stakeholders must decide now
Prof. Neelika Malavige
With Sri Lanka being at a critical point right now, it is essential for all relevant stakeholders, health, economic and others to take key decisions as to how we should move forward, said the Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Prof. Neelika Malavige.
Pointing out that this is not the time to look back, but take relevant decisions on how to handle the current crisis, she said that once we overcome this wave we can use the lessons learnt to face other waves which would come in the future. Decisions, however, should be taken after studying data and such data should be made available to the decision-makers to come up with a strategic plan.
According to Prof. Malavige, vaccines are the long-term answer. But for vaccines to take effect, a very large proportion of the population has to be immunized to reduce transmission significantly – at least everybody over the age of 18 which means at least 70-80% of the population. Seychelles which has vaccinated 60% of the population is still facing a large outbreak. In Sri Lanka, it would take some time to achieve immunization for at least 16 million and this is why there is a need to make sure the numbers (demand) for healthcare from the sick does not exceed the supply.
“To control the infections, certain brakes have to be applied and epidemiologists should decide whether these should be island-wide, region-wide, district-wide or area-wide. Such brakes will prevent escalation and in the long run also cut short prolonging the agony,” she says, pointing out that even after the two doses of the vaccine are given, it takes time for them to work.
| The numbers of COVID-19 Fifty-seven of the 109 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds earmarked for seriously ill COVID-19 patients were occupied, said the Health Ministry’s Coordinator-in-charge of COVID-19 control, Dr. Anver Hamdani on Friday evening. There are also 94 COVID-19 patients in High Dependency Units (HDUs). He said that there are 681 functioning ICU beds across the country being used for patients with illnesses other than COVID-19 but in a worst-case scenario these can also be mobilized on a staggered basis for COVID-19. When asked what would happen to other seriously ill patients if their beds are taken for COVID-19 infected, Dr. Hamdani said that last year, as an example, there were very few emergencies so the bed number was low as everyone was in lockdown. Other ailments will go down when COVID-19 increases. Meanwhile, the overall bed capacity for COVID-19 is around 18,000 but as it is a “dynamic situation”, the number is bound to change frequently, he added.
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