Tag Archives: COVID-19

Experts have advised for weeks that we need to do 2,000–6,000 tests a day, but why has this not happened?

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We, at IHP, have consistently advocated that the COVID response must include massive testing, not only to detect patients for treatment, but more importantly to break the spread of infection by reducing the time that hidden cases spend in the community.

On 6th April, IHP produced estimates that we need to be doing 6,000 tests/day ideally, and a minimum of 2,000/day if we could not do that. We shared that report with senior MOH officials, but we also made it publicly available though this blog. Countless medical experts outside MOH, including many of the most senior doctors in the island, plus the GMOA, have made similar calls.

Later that same day (6 April), we learnt that MOH experts themselves had come to the same conclusion. Continue reading →

Interview with EconomyNext — “Blaming the public is an admission of failure”

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I am posting here a link to an unplanned interview that I did with EconomyNext, since unexpectedly it has attracted a lot of interest. Continue reading →

நாம் உண்மையை ஒப்புக்கொள்ள வேண்டும் – பணி முடக்கம் தோல்வியுற்றது, எமக்கு புதிய சிந்தனை தேவை

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கடந்த இரண்டு வாரங்களில் கண்டறியப்பட்ட புதிய தொற்றுகள் குறித்து எங்களுக்குத் தெரிந்த விவரங்களை வைத்துப் பார்த்தால் திங்களன்று (ஏப்ரல் 27) கொழும்பில் ஊரடங்கு உத்தரவை நீக்குவது உட்பட, COVID கட்டுப்பாட்டு ஏற்பாடுகளை தளர்த்துவதை எந்த விதத்திலும் நியாயப்படுத்த இயலாது. இது மிகப்பாரிய மற்றும் முற்றிலும் தவிர்க்கப்பட்டிருக்கக்கூடிய கொள்கை தோல்வி மட்டுமன்றி மிக மோசமான தவறாகும். பொறுப்புக்கூறல் என்பதற்கு இந்த நாட்டில் அர்த்தம் ஏதேனும் இருந்தால், தற்போதைய சுகாதார செயற்பாடுகளை வடிவமைப்பதில் பங்குகொண்டவர்களுக்கு எதிராக விளைவுகள் இருந்திருக்கும். தெளிவுபடுத்திக்கூறுவதாயின், நான் இங்கு ஜனாதிபதியை குறிப்பிடவில்லை ஏனெனில் இதுவரை அவருக்கு வழங்கப்பட்ட ஆலோசனையின் மீது நம்பிக்கை வைத்தே செயல்பட்டுள்ளார். Continue reading →

අප සත්‍යය කතා කළ යුතුයි- අගුලු දැමීම අසාර්ථකයි-අපිට නැවුම් චින්තනයක් අවශ්‍යයි.

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පසුගිය සති දෙක තුල අනාවරණය වු නව ආසාදිතයන් පිළිබඳව අප දන්නා පරිදි, ඇඳිරි නීතිය ඉවත් කිරීම ඇතුළු කොවිඩ් පාලන පියවර ලිහිල් කිරීමට කිසිදු තාර්කිත පදනමක් නොතිබුණි. මෙය බරපතලවුත්, මුළුමනින්ම මඟහැරිය හැකි වුත්, ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය අසාර්ථකත්වයක් වන අතර අනුමත කළ නොහැකි ව්‍යසනයකි.මේ රටේ වගවීම පිළිබඳව කිසියම් දෙයක් අදහස් කළේ නම්, ඊට සම්බන්ධ වූවන්ට එහි ප්‍රතිවිපාක විඳින්නට ඉඩ තිබුණි. ඇත්ත වශයෙන් පැහැදිලිව කිවහොත් මම අදහස් කළේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා නොව, ඔහු මෙතෙක් කටයුතු කර ඇත්තේ ඔහුට ලබා දී ඇති උපදෙස් මතය. Continue reading →

We must speak the truth – the lockdown failed and we need fresh thinking

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Given what we know about the new cases detected in the past two weeks, it was no longer justifiable to relax COVID control measures on Monday (April 27), including lifting the curfew in Colombo. This is a monumental and totally avoidable policy failure and an unmitigated fiasco. If accountability meant anything in this country, there would have been consequences for those involved in setting the health response. And to be absolutely clear, I do not mean the President, who has so far only acted in good faith on the advice he has been given. Continue reading →

මැතදී ඇතිවු තත්වයන්,අපගේ වසංගතය තුරන් කිරීමේ උපාය මාර්ගයේ ඇති බරපතල ගැටළු හෙළි කරයි.

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ඇදිරිනීතිය යටතේ කොළඹ පදින්චිව සිටින නිවැසියන් අතර රෝගය පැතිර යාමේ ප්‍රවණතාවය වැඩිවීම සෞඛ්‍ය බළධාරීන් පුදුමයට පත් නොකල යුතුය, මන්ද යත් එය බලාපොරොත්තු විය හැකි තත්වයක් වීමය. අපගේ ආරම්භක සාර්ථකත්වය මත, ගොඩනැගීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් පියවර ගැනීමට සති කිහිපයක් තුලම අප අසමත් වී ඇත. විශේෂයෙන්ම පරීක්ෂණ ප්‍රමාණය වැඩි කිරීමට නොහැකි වීමය. අවම ප්‍රජා සම්ප්‍රේෂණයක් සහිත තෝරාගත් රටවල් ගොන්නට අප ඇතුලත් වුවද, අපගේ ප්‍රතිචාරය පිළිබදව එන්න එන්නම පසුබාමින් සිටී. මෙමගින් අගුලු දැමීම ඉවත් කිරීම වඩාත් අපහසු වන අතර එය ආර්ථිකය නැවත ආරම්භ කිරීම සහ මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීම යන රජයේ ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලන අරමුණු තවදුරටත් කලකිරීමට පත් කරනු ඇත. මාසයක් තුල සිදුකල අගුලු දැමීම තුල මහජනතාව සිදුකල විශාල කැපකිරීමද මේ නිසා අපතේ යනු ඇත. Continue reading →

The recent outbreaks reveal serious problems in our elimination strategy

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The surge in cases due to spread between residents of Colombo under curfew should not surprise the health authorities – it was entirely predictable. For several weeks, we have failed to take adequate action to build on our initial success, in particular to expand testing. Whilst we remain in a select group of countries with minimal community transmission, we are increasingly dropping behind in our response. This is making it more difficult to lift the lockdowns, it will continue to frustrate the government’s economic and political goals of restarting the economy and holding elections, and it is putting to waste the enormous sacrifices that the public have made during one month of lockdown. Continue reading →

முதல் தேசிய COVID ஆய்வு இலங்கையில் சமூக ஆய்வுகளுக்கான சவால்களை சுட்டிக்காட்டுவதோடு குழு நோய் எதிர்ப்பு சக்தி ஏன் செயல்படாது என்பதையும் காட்டுகிறது

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உலகின் முக்கிய நாடுகளில் கோவிட் -19 நோய்த்தொற்றின் முதல் தேசிய கணக்கெடுப்பினை கண்டுபிடிப்புகளை கடந்த வாரம் (ஏப்ரல் 10), ஆஸ்திரியா வெளியிட்டது. தொற்றுநோய் கடுமையாக தாக்கியிருந்தாலும்,ஆஸ்திரியாவில் நூறில் ஒருவர் மட்டுமே தொற்றுநோயால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாகத் தெரிகிறது. கோவிட்-19 வைரசிற்கு குழு நோய் எதிர்ப்பு சக்தியை உபாயமாக கொள்வது, எந்த ஒரு அறிவுடைய நாட்டிலும் சாத்தியாமான பதில் என்னும் கருத்தை தகர்த்தெரிகிறது. இலங்கை போன்ற நாடுகளில் சமூக பரவல் கணக்கெடுப்புகள் குறிப்பிடத்தக்க சவால்களை எதிர்கொள்ளுவன என்றும் அவர்கள் பரிந்துரைக்கின்றனர். Continue reading →

ප්‍රථම ජාතික කොවිඩ් අධ්‍යයනය, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රජා සමීක්ෂණ සඳහා ඇති අභියෝග පෙන්වා දෙන අතර, සමූහ ප්‍රතිශක්තිය (Herd Immunity) ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවන්නේ ඇයි දැයි පෙන්වා දෙයි

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කොවිඩ්-19 ආසාදනය පිළිබඳව ලෝකයේ ප්‍රධාන රටක කරන ලද ප්‍රථම ජාතික සමීක්ෂණයේ ප්‍රතිඵල ඔස්ට්‍රියාව විසින් පසුගිය අප්‍රේල් 10 වන දින ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලදී. රට දරුණු වසංගතයකින් පෙළෙන නමුත්, ඔස්ට්‍රියානුවන් සියයකින් එක් අයෙකු පමණක් ආසාදනය වී ඇති බව පෙනේ. ඕනෑම බුද්ධිමත් රටක කොවිඩ්-19 සඳහා සුදුසුම උපායමාර්ගය සමූහ ප්‍රතිශක්තිය යන අදහස මෙම ප්‍රතිඵල වලින් බිඳ දමයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වැනි රටවල ප්‍රජා ව්‍යාප්තිය පිළිබඳ සමීක්ෂණ පැවැත්වීම සැලකිය යුතු අභියෝගයන්ට මුහුණ දෙන බව ද ඔවුහු යෝජනා කරති. Continue reading →

First national COVID study points to challenges for community surveys in Sri Lanka and shows why herd immunity will not work

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Last week (10 April), Austria released findings from the first national survey of Covid-19 infection in any major country in the world. Despite the country suffering a severe epidemic, only one in a hundred Austrians appear to have been infected. The findings demolish the idea that a strategy of going for herd immunity is a viable response to Covid-19 in any sane country. They also suggest that conducting community prevalence surveys in countries like Sri Lanka will face significant challenges. Continue reading →