• Current state of the infection is of very high transmissibility

By Sheain Fernandopulle 

Asserting that the hospitals will be overrun with COVID-19 patients, the medical professionals’ associations said yesterday and the health workers who are already exhausted would be strained further leading to a breakdown of the healthcare system. Therefore, they asked for a two-week national lockdown.  

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) along with the Government Medical Officers Association, Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) and Sri Lanka Medical Intercollegiate Committee (SMIC) representing all medical professional colleges made the request to the Government. “As the current state of the infection is of very high transmissibility, it does not appear as if any of the steps implemented so far have been good enough or effective enough to achieve any kind of control of the infection,” they highlighted. “It is known to scientists that when the detected number of cases in the community if over 3,000, the actual number in the community is more than three times the number detected.

When the infection is spreading this extensively, there is no country that has managed to contain the infection without a strict lockdown (or curfew) being declared. As such, while acknowledging the very significant short-term hardships the common man will have to face, we see no option other than a strictly implemented mobility restriction as an effective strategy that is left to contain the infection,” they pointed out. Therefore, the Medical Professionals demanded the government to go for a two week (14-day) lockdown or even a curfew, continuously and at a stretch, of the entire country, considering the following scientific observations. 1. 14 days would cover two- cycles incubation periods of the infection that is likely to be adequate to break the chain of uncontrolled spread of the disease. 2. The infection is rampant in all provinces, making inter-provincial travel restrictions to be of no useful benefit at this stage of the outbreak. 3. As isolation of Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions occur with a 5 – 7day delay following the detection of cases, isolation of GN Divisions does not serve the purpose of restricting the transmission of infection. By the time the GN divisions are isolated, the infection with an inherent very high transmissibility has spread way beyond the GN divisions. 4. Country-wide lockdown for just a few days at a stretch will not have any significant effect on the caseload or transmission of the disease as it does not cover even one incubation period to reduce infectivity and transmission of the infection. 5. Repeated, intermittent and short lockdowns, with people coming together for work in enclosed areas following this, will not have any benefit on the economy as it will only create a scenario that will only increase the numbers of COVID-19 cases within these premises.

• Restrictions will have to continue for over a few more months