Ranil forewarned about second wave of pandemic: Fmr.UNP Parliamentarian

By Yohan Perera   

Prior warnings given by  former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe months ago that a second wave of COVID- 19 might hit Sri Lanka was ignored and thus no precautionary measures were taken contain the situation , former UNP MP and Member of working committee Sanjith Samarasinghe said yesterday.   

Mr. Samarasinghe told a press conference that the authorities never took the warnings made by Mr. Wickremesinghe seriously.   

“Mr. Wickremesinghe warned months ago that a second wave of COVID-19 would hit Sri Lanka. He said country should be prepared for it with adequate number of hospital beds to face any situation. However authorities never took this warning seriously,” Mr. Samarasinghe said.   

“ Mr Wickremesinghe had also said that Sri Lanka should focus on conducting more PCR tests, but that too was ignored,” he added.   

Mr. Samarasinghe said that quarantine centres should be located in safe areas, citing an example of a  Quarantine Centre located in Rambukkana which was an unsafe area. “This centre which is an old building belonging to Brandix is just 20 metres away from the Pinnawala School. 

This school is a centre where the GCE Advanced Level Examination is being conducted. Therefore the authorities should make a note of this situation,” he said.   

The former MP  also said that the government should pay attention to the statement that has been made by the monks with regard to the proposed 20th Amendment.