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By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
Sri Lanka’s daily COVID-19 detections exceeded 3,000 for the first time since 5 June, with the detection of 3,039 COVID-19 patients yesterday.
The patients detected yesterday include 2,420 from the New Year cluster.
Over 2,000 COVID-19 patients have been detected daily since 29 July, with no signs of a drop in detections. Despite this, the Government is yet to impose strict travel restrictions or countrywide lockdown. According to Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Hemantha Herath, the decision on travel restrictions is made by the Government but is always included in health sector recommendations. “Experts in various areas of the health sector carry out risk assessments, which are handed over to the relevant units. All persons in these units make a decision on what is most necessary and suited for the country. On our side, we are doing everything that is necessary for the country at this point,” he said.
He went on to say that oxygen supply for patients can be a massive challenge if COVID-19 detections increase rapidly in the future.
“At present, we use the entire quantity of oxygen produced in the country. As an alternative, importing oxygen has now begun. However, there is a limit to this as the suppliers may require oxygen in that country and may be unable to supply oxygen to us,” he said. A total of 345,118 COVID-19 patients have been detected from the island to date, with third wave detections exceeding 239,000.
The New Year cluster, which emerged after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, had a patient count of 239,539 at 10 a.m. yesterday. The prisons cluster, which is also currently active, has 7,935 detections.
The Epidemiology Unit states that the Peliyagoda cluster has 82,785 patients and the Divulapitiya cluster has 3,059 patients.
The cumulative patient count of the four clusters is 332,530. The country’s COVID-19 detections also include 6,519 Sri Lankan overseas arrivals and 328 foreigners.
This takes into account the 2,987 COVID-19 patients detected on Wednesday, which includes 2,887 persons from the New Year cluster, 97 Sri Lankan overseas arrivals, and three persons from the Prisons cluster.
The district distribution of the COVID-19 detections shows 79,176 persons from Colombo, 61,202 persons from Gampaha, 36,862 persons from Kalutara, 16,577 persons from Kurunegala, and 16,355 persons from Galle.
During the third wave of the pandemic, 46,879 persons from Colombo, 42,668 persons from Gampaha, and 29,804 persons from Kalutara tested positive for COVID-19. At present, 37,199 persons are under medical or home-based care and hospitals are observing 3,128 persons suspected of having COVID-19.
The Epidemiology Unit states that the country’s COVID-19 recoveries rose to 302,455 with 2,049 persons discharged from treatment centres yesterday.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka received critical emergency medical equipment from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU) as part of a two-million-euro grant. The medical equipment worth 480,000 euros includes high dependence unit (HDU) beds, finger pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators, and oxygen jumbo cylinders.
The EU grant has also funded the establishment of a virtual learning management information system (LMIS) that has enhanced 43 MOH training centres, where over 12,000 health workers are currently undergoing training. The centres are expected to reach an additional 5,000 recruits every year.
