Claiming that the curfew imposed in the night is not effective in restricting people’s movement, Government Nursing Officers' Association (GNOA) President Saman Rathnapriya today said Trade Unions of the Health sector would take to the street forcing the Government to impose islandwide lockdown.

He told a news conference that health sector trade unions have already discussed steps to be taken to force the Government to impose a scientific lockdown after these two days.

“The curfew imposed by the Government between 10.00 pm and 4.00 am is not effective. No one is moving at all during that time. This curfew is only for the bats that are active at night,” he said.

Rathnapriya said interprovincial travel restrictions were not useful either as Covid pandemic is spreading in all provinces now.

“Covid-19 is spreading in all provinces now. There is no use of restricting movement between provinces now,” he said.

He said the only way to prevent the spread of the disease is to impose a scientific lockdown for a week and identify all the positive cases just as other countries like Australia were doing.

“Political lockdown that  we imposed earlier for months will not be effective. We need to impose a scientific lockdown for a week and find all the positive cases in the community. We can find 70% of the positive cases. Then the country should be open for three days and again shut for another week. Then, we figure out all the positive cases in the community and treat them as needed. This would isolate all positive cases and thereby prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.(Ajith Siriwardana)