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PHIs warn of uncertain & risky future
The future is uncertain and with the Delta (Indian) variant being found, the situation is “very risky”, reiterated the President of the Public Health Inspectors’ (PHIs’) Union, Upul Rohana, explaining that the coronavirus is widespread in society now and the situation is not being controlled properly.
Upul Rohana
He said that there are around 2,000 COVID-19 patients being reported daily. It may be because under a circular issued by the Director-General of Health Services on June 6, more random RT-PCR tests are being done than before.
Explaining the process followed earlier, he said that all first contacts of a positive person who were sent into quarantine were only released in 10 days after an exit RT-PCR turned negative. But now they are kept in quarantine for 14 days and released if a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) is negative. If unable to perform a RAT, they will be kept for 21 days and released if they do not show any symptoms. With the stoppage of exit RT-PCRs, 90% of the daily RT-PCRs carried out across the country are random.
When asked what the high-risk areas are from where large numbers of infections are arising, Mr. Rohana said that all 362 of the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas – the “entire” country – are “risk” areas, except some in Batticaloa, Ampara and Hambantota (around five to six areas).
Pointing out that all test samples do not undergo a check for variants, Mr. Rohana said that the Indian variant (Delta) was only detected from a random sample.
“The Dematagoda area, where we found the variant, is under lockdown. Whether the variant is in Madiwela has not been confirmed yet. But we are closely monitoring all the other areas too. We can’t really say that the Indian variant has not spread to the other parts of the country. There is a possibility and we suspect certain places may be infected with the Indian variant because of the high number of cases/infectivity rate,” he said.
Stressing once again that the “situation is very dangerous’, he urged the people to take all safety measures and avoid going out of their homes unless necessary.
When asked for the views of the PHIs on lifting the lockdown, Mr. Rohana said that they can see people not adhering to regulations. If in future a lockdown is imposed, it has to be maintained properly, not done just for the sake of doing it. They have found that COVID-19 infections in garment factories are rising unexpectedly. There is no control over that. As such, there has to be more responsibility with regard to who is given permission to travel during lockdowns.
Taking up a case in point, he said that they had seen COVID-19 infections among random samples from employees of shops and their families.
“Yes. From the day we imposed the lockdown till like 15 days to date, a small percentage of infections has reduced,” he said, when asked about caseload reductions due to the month-long lockdown.
Death rates
Mr. Rohana said that the death rates among those hit by COVID-19 are high. The numbers dying at home are also increasing because even though people have symptoms, they are not willing to undergo an RT-PCR or Rapid Antigen Test. This leads to non-detection of the disease and not receiving treatment.
Explaining the reasons for such behaviour among the public, he said that it is due “unpleasant” experiences they have faced in centres (linked to facilities and food) that they are reluctant to go to them. Another reason is that there is no transport for patients with complications to go to a hospital. They do not have private vehicles and neighbours are reluctant to provide transport. The 1990 ambulance service that is available is running at maximum capacity.
COVID-19 patients at home
Currently, there are not many patients in their homes, said Mr. Rohana, conceding that there are issues with coordination when it comes to the process of sending a patient to an intermediate care centre (ICC). The process is tedious – the PHIs have to inform the Health Ministry, then the ministry has to find a bed, followed by letting the PHI know where to send the patient and finally the PHI has to arrange transport for the patient.
Vaccination programme
“There have been no major failures in the vaccination programme but there is political influence and other issues generally. Incidents such as those in Galle are being investigated,” said Mr. Rohana.
According to him the vaccination coverage and the response from the public are good, but there are some target groups who have not got the vaccine yet.
“We have asked them to start vaccination in garment factories because there’s a possibility of the factories being shut down if many cases are reported and clusters form. It has not been started yet. Another issue is that we have not been able to give the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The government should take measures to overcome this issue,” he added.