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Saturday, 24 October 2020 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Opposition Parliamentarians yesterday blamed the Government for falling to take timely action to prevent the spread of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in the country.
Taking part in an adjournment debate in the House, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said the short-sightedness and negligence of the Government were the root causes of the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
He said the first reports of COVID-19 came in February this year even before the first COVID-19 case was reported on 11 March.
He added that the first thousand was reported on 15 May, second thousand was reported on 27 June, and the third on 30 August. He added however the fourth, fifth and sixth were reported on 6, 13, and 22 October respectively. He added that though this serious situation was raised, the Government members humiliated him.
He demanded that the Government to take quick action to bring this situation under control.
Meanwhile SJB Kalutara District MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told Parliament that if the Government had heeded the calls from the Opposition to take timely action against the outbreak of COVID-19, the country would have been better off while fighting the pandemic.
Participating in a debate on the pandemic at the time of the adjournment of the House, Dr. Senaratne said that COVID-19 is not just a local problem but one of the greatest crisis that has befallen an entire human civilisation.
“Yesterday alone, 2,297 suspected cases were found. Of them, 167 were found positive. Sixty have left the hospitals after recovery; 27 centres are treating the patients; and there are 2,077 beds in hospitals to treat them. There are 186 beds remaining to treat them. This includes the beds in the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital, of which 400 beds are being used today. When the hospital was taken over under my purview, I was blamed. The Government Medical Officers’ Association criticised me for taking it over. If that hospital was not there, what would have been the result?”
Senaratne also warned that there are variations of COVID-19. “The ‘A’ version had been found in Sri Lanka, Australia, and the US, etc. China had the ‘B’ version, while the ‘C’ version was found in Europe.
“The advantage that we have is that we are a tropical country, where the humidity and temperature work against the virus. That should be capitalised to fight against the virus,” the former Health Minister said.
