Sri Lanka can be rid of COVID-19 if the country can hang on in this tight situation until April 19, Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said.
According to Minister Wanniarachchi, by April 19 all possible COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka will appear and the people who had it without any symptoms or with mild symptoms will be completely recovered. All we, Sri Lankans need to do is stay at home without going out until April 19. The country can then be saved from COVID-19, the Minister said to the media in Colombo a few days ago.
She said all required medical facilities, including ICUs, human resources, 30 state hospitals, etc to treat 2,000 or more COVID-19 patients are now ready but Sri Lanka will stop long before reaching that number if the people cooperate and stay at home for the rest of the required period following the instructions of the Government.
Minister Wanniarachchi stressed that the three (3) contact circles of all COVID-19 patients had been traced successfully with the assistance of the armed forces. Sri Lanka has this number of COVID-19 patients at the moment because some individuals did not follow Government instructions, violating the rules and regulations.
The country should walk forward slowly for another six (6) months to get back to normalcy. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Medical Research Institute (MRI) etc will be developed to face any similar situations in the future, she added.