Covid-19 predictions made by US research centre Govt. says interventions made to avoid grave predictions

• Necessary healthcare interventions to avoid such grim situations have already been made

 By Kalani Kumarasinghe  

State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle yesterday said that predictions made by a US health research facility would be the case if no interventions are made.

The Minister made this comment in response to a question from a journalist about predictions made by an independent health research centre based in the United States.  

“It is certainly a prediction. The report states that daily deaths due to Covid-19 could be as high as 200 and daily positive cases could reach 10,000 to 20,000 per day. This could be the case if no interventions are made,” the Minister said.  
Minister Fernandopulle referred to a recent publication by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) affiliated with the University of Washington.  
The State Minister assured that necessary healthcare interventions to avoid such a grim situations have already been made.  “In addition to this, when we are alerted of high number of positives in each Grama Niladhari (GN) division, we have proceeded to lockdown those areas,”  the Minister explained.  
“As a mid-term strategy, we have fast-tracked vaccination roll-out. PCR tests are being conducted regularly to identify positives who are being sent to hospitals, while their close contacts are being quarantined,” she added.  But it is impossible to tackle it without the cooperation of the public. In order to stop the spread of the disease, public must put an immediate stop to gatherings of family and friends and venturing outdoors unnecessarily. State Minister Fernandopulle also said that transport of Covid-positive patients to healthcare facilities is facing a gridlock at present due to the high volume of positives being reported.  

“If you suspect to have contracted the disease, please remain isolated within the house until your results are confirmed or until the healthcare workers can hospitalise you,” the Minister explained.  

Meanwhile the government has sought an explanation from the IHME for its projections, according to Joint Cabinet Spokesman Minister Udaya Gammanpila.  

“We have asked them to explain the projections and the data on which it has been based,” the Minister said during the weekly Cabinet briefing.