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Sri Lanka needs to increase testing of COVID from ~250 to at least 2,000 RT-PCR tests a day. There is a large backlog in testing of contacts of known COVID cases that needs to be rapidly dealt with. We also need to put in place testing capacity that will allow the country and economy to get back to some level of normality during the next 12 months. We report target levels for daily testing, as well as how much capacity we need overall. Our analysis does not estimate requirements for antibody (IgG/IgM) testing, as this will be additional and is not appropriate as the first line of testing in this war against COVID-19. The most urgent priority for the country is to expand RT-PCR testing. Our initial estimates and analysis are given in our report: click here to read more

Regular tracking and reporting of health expenditure flows is vital to understand and monitor Sri Lanka's health system. The original Sri Lanka Health Accounts (SLHA) system and Sri Lanka National Health Accounts (SLNHA) framework were designed by IHP staff, led by Ravi P. Rannan-Eliya, working under the direction of the Ministry of Health Management Development and Planning Unit and with the funding support of World Bank during 1998-1999. Sri Lanka Health Accounts (SLHA) estimates describe how much the country spends on healthcare, and how this is spent and by whom, applying international definitions. We have released our new publication Sri Lanka Health Accounts: National Health Expenditure 1990-2019. Electronic version of this publication and other expenditure tables and figures are accessible at ihp.lk/slha.

Sri Lanka's population has largely stopped growing, and it is older and will age more rapidly than most other developing countries. Sri Lanka's critical problem is that it will grow old before it becomes rich. As Sri Lanka's population ages, the costs of looking after the needs of the elderly will increase and will translate into increased fiscal costs for government. Whilst social norms still largely ensure that the family looks after their own elderly, the numbers of elderly living alone are already increasing at a rapid pace. This trend is as fast as that experienced by Japan in the 1970s. Sri Lankan policy makers should learn from Japanese experience that this is likely to lead to rapid changes in future, and that a policy which assumes family will continue to bear the burden will increasingly not be realistic. >>Read more