SL's War On Delta Only To Worsen

With the coming three weeks extremely crucial for Sri Lanka, Health experts have urged people to restrict movement and avoid going out unnecessarily. With beds running out in the main hospitals across the country and no beds available in the Western Province, doctors predict that daily deaths from the COVID-19 will hit at least 200 per day, the health services said. Major hospitals witnessing several deaths per day, are running out of capacity to store the bodies. Doctors are presently battling to provide supportive care to the patients while a COVID-19 outbreak is also spreading among health workers. In addition to more COVID-19 deaths which will be witnessed in the coming weeks, deaths caused by other illnesses will also increase, as people with other sicknesses are presently afraid to visit hospitals. Doctors say that while they were managing to provide oxygen to all patients who required it presently, in a week’s time they may start witnessing deaths due to lack of oxygen

- Jamila Husain

Sri Lanka’s war against the Delta variant which has exhausted the country’s health system and overburdened hospitals is still in its formative stages and is only expected to worsen in the coming three weeks, doctors have warned.

Already with beds running out in the main hospitals across the country and no beds available in the Western Province, doctors predict that daily deaths from the COVID-19 will hit at least 200 per day in the coming weeks and the number of daily patients to hit 5000.

The path ahead for Sri Lanka in the coming days and weeks looks grim as presently two to three patients share beds in ICUs and medical wards while thousands more patients lie on mats on hospital floors. Patients are breathing their last on beds shared by two more patients. In addition to the severe COVID-19 spread, patients are also suffering from severe depression in hospitals by witnessing the worst in their lives.

Professor of Community Medicine, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Professor Suneth Agampodi told Daily Mirror that if restrictions on people’s movement are not placed with immediate effect, the battle against the Delta variant will peak in three to four weeks, causing more havoc while some other medical experts say, it may result in the collapse of the health sector which is already exhausted.

Professor Agampodi said that while the earlier COVID-19 waves witnessed in Sri Lanka were fought on the field, in this battle, the war has shifted to hospitals and this was a serious issue.