SJB urges people to adhere to self-imposed travel restriction as the coming weeks are crucial

SJB Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne emphasized that this government must abandon its stubborn arrogance and follow the advice of the health authorities and take immediate steps to protect the country and its people from the corona epidemic.

If the government does not impose travel restrictions as it did in May 2021 as a solution to this rapidly spreading Covid catastrophe, people should make self-imposed travel restrictions for their own safety and precautions said Mr Eran Wickramaratne addressing the press at the office of the Leader of Opposition Sunday (15)

Speaking further Mr. Eran Wickramaratne noted that in a short period of time, the number of corona infections as well as the number of deaths are increasing day by day. A group of Independent Medical Experts have opined at a meeting convened at the Colombo office of the WHO that If the country's travel restrictions are strictly enforced in the next few weeks, as done in May 2021 for four weeks, about 18,000 lives could be saved by January 2021.

"They have further noted with great concern the current surge in the Covid – 19, nearly overwhelming the capacity of the health system to provide the required adequate care for the people and the trend could soon face a health crisis in Sri Lanka," he said.

A statement made by the daughter of a corona patient at the Karapitiya Hospital in Galle drew the attention of the public which is being circulated on social media.

"The daughter has said it was important for a relative to be with the Corona patient every time they were hospitalized, adding that four out of five people who died while she was on the ward with her mother died because there was no one to care for them. She said there were occasions where the death occurred when the oxygen tube was slightly removed from the nose and there was no one to fix it."

Mr. Wickremaratne said that there was mistrust among the people regarding the various statistics on Covid patients and deaths, and it is unfortunate that the statistics on Covid in Sri Lanka were released by a Covid Dash Board established at the Presidential Secretariat. Statistics for any country are not collected or released by the Office of the Head of State.

Data is a public resource and the very fact that it must be obtained from the office of the Head of State is a cause for suspicion. In that case, the transparency and the credibility of the data would be lost.

Despite the economic hardships faced by the people due to the reckless economic management of this government, the government is acting arbitrarily ignoring the advice of the health authorities. As the life is more important than the economy, he appealed to the people to realize their responsibility at this juncture to enforce self- imposed travel restrictions on their own.

Mr Wickremaratne said it was timely for the people to protect themselves by imposing travel restrictions on self - motivation as health officials have said the next few weeks were crucial in the country where nearly 6,000 people had died from corona.