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Wednesday, 25 August 2021 01:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 detections neared 400,000 with 4,446 persons testing positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
A total of 398,801 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 to date, with 89,962 COVID-19 detections in August alone.
According to the Department of Government Information, the COVID-19 patients detected yesterday include 4,427 persons from the New Year cluster and 19 overseas arrivals.
In terms of testing, 14,356 PCR tests were carried out yesterday. The previous day, 14,716 PCR tests and 4,026 rapid antigen tests were carried out.
On Monday, 4,353 persons from the New Year cluster and two Sri Lankan overseas arrivals tested positive for COVID-19.
The country’s total COVID-19 detections include 291,396 persons from the New Year cluster, 8,117 persons from the Prisons cluster, 6,756 Sri Lankan overseas returnees and 328 foreigner arrivals.
The district distribution of COVID-19 detections records 90,813 persons from Colombo, 72,427 persons from Gampaha, 41,391 persons from Kalutara, 21,158 persons from Galle, and 18,890 persons from Kurunegala.
The Epidemiology Unit states that third wave detections from the Western Province include 58,516 persons from Colombo, 53,893 persons from Gampaha, and 34,333 persons from Kalutara.
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 recoveries rose to 346,767 with 2,386 persons leaving hospitals yesterday.
At present, 44,474 persons are under medical or home-based care and 3,687 persons suspected of having COVID-19 are under observation. The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) yesterday shared details of the Doc Call 247 program introduced by the SLMA for COVID-19 patients receiving home-based care.
“Regardless of the variant, 80% of patients have mild or no symptoms and 15% have symptoms that require hospital care. The remaining 5% have severe enough symptoms to require ICU care. As an organisation, we decided to offer a service to that 80%,” Doc Call 247 SLMA Working Group Chair Dr. Ruvaiz Haniffa said. He explained the reason for this, saying that mild symptoms can develop into severe symptoms within a very short time. Meanwhile, SLMA President Dr. Padma Gunaratne said various factors must be considered when releasing the country from quarantine curfew. “We know that the Health Ministry has prepared an exit strategy and, as an organisation, we also prepared an exit strategy and handed it to the Health Ministry. All these factors will be considered and as the medical community, we prefer the country reopening in a systematic and scientific manner,” she said.
The Cabinet of Ministers on Monday decided to provide families that lost their livelihood due to the temporary closure of the country with an allowance of Rs. 2,000. The allowance will only be provided to families that do not receive any other relief from the Government.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved the weekly import of 300,000 litres of liquid medical oxygen required by COVID-19 patients. This is instead of the 120,000 litres of liquid medical oxygen previously approved to be imported on a weekly basis.
It was also stated that Sri Lanka received $ 50 million from the Asian Development Bank to implement the Health System Enhancement Project. The funds were received as a $ 37.5 million loan and $ 12.5 million grant. Of this, $ 15 million has been allocated for activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
