An official of the Health Ministry or elsewhere is said to be ignoring the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
This person is pushing the country into a disaster by ignoring the instructions of the President, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Secretary Dr. Senal Fernando said.He told the media in Colombo that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa very clearly issued instructions to restructure the Epidemiology Unit to obtain accurate and updated data on the Covid-19 pandemic in the country but the instructions have not been put into action so far.
There is a well experienced and talented Deputy Director General for Public Health in the Health Ministry at present and he should be given the responsibility, he said.
According to Dr. Fernando, there are 24 qualified doctors in the Epidemiology Unit, but only three doctors are handling everything in connection with Covid-19 without letting others to contribute where they could use their knowledge and experience.
The National Vaccination Program implemented by the Epidemiology Unit has failed to reduce the Covid-19 death rate in the country during this lockdown. The program prevents people over the age of 60 to obtain the vaccine but over 75 percent of Covid-19 deaths are in this age group, he said.
Dr. Fernando said that since May 31 around 38 persons died on a daily basis owing to Covid-19 and it has now increased up to 42 within the first 10 days of June. There were 423 Covid-19 deaths during the past 10 days and the oxygen requirement had increased by 400 percent since last month.