COVID has become a neglected health topic in Sri Lanka: Kumudesh

The COVID-19 has become a neglected health topic in Sri Lanka, and health officials and the public have paid less attention to it, Academy of Health Professionals (AHP) President Ravi Kumudesh said.

As we all know, COVID infections are still prevalent, and they are spreading on a large scale in Sri Lanka due to lax policies on safety precautions, despite the lack of attention.

"Anyway, we don’t have valid data on this because there have been no recent population level screening tests or surveys done on it. We'll be able to find a lot of cases if we start to perform tests," Kumudesh said.

"The COVID situation in the world has also become very alarming, according to the official evidence we receive from the countries. Japan reports nealry about 200,000 daily cases of new covid infections alone with nearly about 500 cases of covid related deaths. Countries like Japan, China, and Taiwan have imposed strict safety measures again due to the rise of COVID-19 cases," he said. 

He added that if Sri Lanka continued to ignore this emerging issue, the country will face a slew of new healthcare-related and economic challenges in the near future.

The World Health Organization and the American Center for Disease Control have recently identified the three most vulnerable categories for COVID-19 infections.