Covid-19 cases in Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka to import medical oxygen from India amid rise in COVID-19 cases

Sri Lanka will import 100 metric tonnes of medical grade oxygen from India subsequent week to fulfill the scarcity of provide in hospitals, the Well being Minister stated on Saturday as WHO consultants warned that the variety of COVID-19 instances and deaths within the nation would spike by mid-October. Well being Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi instructed reporters that the federal government will order medical grade oxygen from India to fulfill the present wants with the fast improve of COVID-19 instances.

She stated 100 metric tonnes of oxygen could be imported from India subsequent week and extra orders could be positioned relying on the necessity.

A gaggle of Sri Lankan well being consultants, who make the WHO impartial professional group, has stated that sufferers depending on oxygen considerably elevated from 528 final week to 646 by August 12.

“If this pattern continues, there may very well be a severe scarcity of oxygen provide and interruption of care,” she stated.

The well being consultants have warned that the variety of COVID-19 instances would improve as much as 6,000 per day as much as mid September and deaths would peak to 220 per day by mid October.

In line with the present figures of the Well being Ministry, the common figures are half of the anticipated rise.

The panel of well being consultants referred to as for a lockdown within the nation for 4 weeks. “The nation may have much less variety of instances of round 1,000 a day, deaths lower than 25 a day and ICU care to lower than 25 a day by October and avert 18,000 deaths by January 2022,” in keeping with their report.

They name for prioritising vaccination to these over 60, ideally with Pfizer, Moderna or

. They opine that “for the vaccine that’s used most generally, neighborhood vaccination will take 2-3 weeks after the second dose to supply enough safety”.

Sri Lanka has procured over 14 million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine to this point and 10.6 million of them had been administered by August 7, making it probably the most extensively used.

The panel says that as of August 9, lower than 15 per cent of the 21 million had been vaccinated. As fast measures they need restrictions to be positioned much like that prevailed in Could for 4 weeks.

Sri Lanka has recorded over 3.48 lakh coronavirus instances whereas the loss of life toll has touched 5,776.