Author: TELO Admin

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) urges the President to continue the current travel restrictions without interruptions.

The Association mentioned this in a letter addressed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in response to the government’s recent decision to relax the island-wide travel restrictions for two days from June 21.

The SLMA says that it foresees that the release of the current lockdown even for a few days will lead to the uncontrolled free movement of people and thereby leading to an ‘alarming ‘ increase in transmission, with the rapid spread of the new Delta variant found among the community.

‘The epidemic will thereby escalate to an unprecedented level causing increasing numbers of cases and unacceptable mortality on a scale that would completely overwhelm the health system’, the letter read.

The eventual ease of lockdown will have to be carefully phased on a district basis, grounded on real-time data at the district level rather than in the country as a whole, SLMA stated.

SLMA says that an ‘exit strategy’, which is currently under development, will be handed over to the government during the course of this week.

Thereby, SLMA urges the government to continue with the current lockdown measures uninterrupted, during this crucial moment, as lifting the lockdown even for a few days would take the country back to the major epidemic situation that prevailed in April this year.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that incorrect data on COVID-19 deaths forced the decision to extend the travel restrictions which was to be lifted on 14th June.

“Though it was decided to lift travel restrictions on June 14, steps were taken to extend the restrictions until June 21 based on the data received that 101 deaths were reported on June 11,” said the President on Friday (18) at the Presidential Secretariat.

The President at a meeting with the Special COVID-19 Committee extensively elaborated on the data obtained by the Health sector and the Intelligence Unit following a thorough investigation conducted into the causes of deaths.

“It was also revealed that some of the deaths occurred during the four-month period from February 06 to June 11, and death certificates had also been issued. Information on certain deaths was found to have been mentioned twice,” he told the COVID-19 Committee.

The President said that it was revealed following an in-depth investigation that the death toll occurred on June 11 was not 101 but only 15.

The President emphasized that accuracy and timeliness in the provision of data is essential for making the right decisions.

With the Chinese Navy getting new port projects in Sri Lanka, a top Indian Navy officer said that it ‘could pose a threat’ to Indian interests in the region and there is a need to keep a close watch on such activities, Asia News International (ANI) reported today (19).

In an interview with ANI, Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar said the Indian Navy is very well prepared to secure the maritime boundaries of the country.

“If you want to analyse whether it is a threat or not, it is a very difficult question. But the fact that when somebody is external to the region starts showing so much interest even though they might have rational reasons to do so as the majority of their energy sources pass through this region … Is it a logical thing for nations to do, yes? Could that pose a threat to us, it could. We just need to ensure that it is being closely watched,” he told ANI on Friday (18), responding to a query on whether China’s getting hold of a new port in Sri Lanka could pose a threat to India.

When asked if the Indian Navy was keeping a close watch on such activities, he said, “Yes, in the entire region.”

Responding to a query on whether the Chinese could surprise India through the sea route, he said that after the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, India had taken a number of steps like installation of the coastal security network and had enhanced surveillance capabilities.

“The chances of India getting surprised in the maritime domain to have reduced… we are much better prepared today than what we were a decade ago,” the Vice Admiral said.

He said that the Indian Navy is a capability-driven force and more strength would be added to it in the form of new assets in the near future.

(ANI)

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has removed Lanka Phosphate Company Ltd from Ministry of Industries, comes under Minister Wimal Weerawansa.

It has now been assigned under Ministry of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

Gazette notification in this regard has been issued yesterday.

Secretary to the Ministry of Industries Anusha Palpita decided to retires ealrier this week and former Chairman of Ports Authority, retired General Daya Ratnayake has been named as the new secretary.