By Kelum Bandara

Government MP Gevindu Cumaratunga said Sri Lanka has fared better than most countries including New Zealand in maintaining a low Covid-19 fatality rate.

Making his remarks during the parliamentary debate on Covid-19, he said Sri Lanka’s fatality rate as a percentage of the total number of Covid-19  patients   remained as low as 0.61  whereas as it was as high as 1.78 percent in the United States, 1.09 percent in India and 0.99 percent in New Zealand.

He said it was important to maintain it at this level or even to reduce it.   For that purpose, he said it would be advisable to find the reason behind Sri Lanka’s success story.

“There is no doubt that the free health service and the contribution of health workers including doctors, nurses and Public Health Inspectors contributed to it.  But, we have performed better than the countries with better health services such as China and New Zealand.  We should examine whether it is due to high temperature, dietary habits   or traditional medicine we take,” he said.  

He said though Sri Lanka was better off than many other countries in terms of the total number of patients as a percentage of the total population ,  it was behind New Zealand in this respect.