Top Sri Lankan medical body expresses concern over public gatherings amidst COVID-19

Grave concern has been expressed by a top health body over recent trends of large and crowded public gatherings with disregard for Health Ministry guidelines in the face the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.

In an obvious reference to Sunday’s funeral of an upcountry politician, the powerful Intercollegiate Committee of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) in a public statement has cautioned that in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the country faced a risk of a second wave.

Pointing out that from the initial alert onwards, the health sector with the support of the Tri Forces and the Police was able to control the epidemic to a great extent mainly due to the adherence to key measures of avoiding social gatherings, maintaining physical distance, hand hygiene and use of face-masks, the Committee states that these key control measures have not been widely practised during the last few days.

“This contributes to a higher risk of transmission of the infection to the community and a possible resurgence of cases from the community.

It is most distressing that these gatherings are given undue publicity by the electronic media (state and private) as well as through social media portals. It portrays an inaccurate message and a false sense of security to the public, thus undermining the efforts of the health sector in controlling the epidemic,” the statement signed by SLMA President & Committee Chair Prof. Indika Karunathilake and committee Convener Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama states.

The Committee adds: “The key messages of accepted norms of infection prevention become redundant in the face of such behaviour at public gatherings. This will lead to misrepresentation in the way the community behaves, with scant respect to the guidelines advocated by the Ministry of Health, and will have a detrimental effect on the successes achieved during the past few months in effectively controlling the spread of the infection.

“Unless strong deterrent action is taken by the authorities, we are likely to see a more serious increase in the number of such public gatherings in the future, leading to an exponential increase of the many problems that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cause.

“We urge all relevant authorities to emphasize the need to strictly adhere to the guidelines advocated for the entire populace, irrespective of all other considerations and to also request the police to take deterrent action irrespective of who violates these regulations. It is imperative that additional steps are taken to limit and perhaps even prohibit the number of such social events organized in the future.”

The SLMA’s Inter-Collegiate Committee comprises all professional colleges and associations of medical practitioners. (Kumudini)