• Just as much as we have supported the current ten-day lock down, the whole country will support a further extension of it

By Yohan Perera  

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday urged the government to extend the lock-down in accordance with the advice of the health experts.  

“Just as much as we have supported the current ten- day lockdown, the whole country will support a further extension of it,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said in a statement.  

“Mangala Samaraweera, Raja Mahendran, President Counsel D. S Wijesinghe and eminent personality Gowri Thavarasah have passed away due to COVID. Six people whom I know also passed away recently. There is a rapid spread of COVID. There have been 5,000 COVID related deaths since August 7. Three thousand deaths have taken place within the last 20 days. This is a very high rate of deaths. Statistics that are available are questionable. What is happening now is that we are dealing with those who are already infected. We have to reduce the spread. The government declared a ten- day lockdown. It has received everyone’s support, It is not a sufficient period as per the medical advice. Another two- week lockdown is necessary,” he said.  

“The other factor is the economic damage that can be caused by a lockdown. We have reached a point where the damage which a lockdown would cause is far greater than the damage that would be caused by not having a lockdown. The remedy for this is to go immediately to the IMF. We have already received $ 720 million from the IMF for the COVID control,” he added.

• We have reached a point where the damage which a lockdown would cause  is far greater than the damage that would be caused by not having a  lockdown