Former Prime Minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has called on the government to extend the curfew by another two or three weeks as the curfew is not sufficient for ten days as per medical advice.
He made this statement to the media yesterday (26). Wickremesinghe also stressed that the responsible parties should reconsider this matter as the country will have to be closed for another two weeks to achieve the real objective.
He emphasized that the economic damage to the country in the absence of a lockdown is greater than the economic damage due to a lockdown.
As the International Monetary Fund is to provide a grant of US$ 720 million to Sri Lanka to overcome the COVID crisis
The President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet are acting on medical advice and he is proposing to close the country for another week or two.
Wickremasinghe said he was confident that all citizens would support him in this endeavor.
Ranil Wickremesinghe also stated as follows.”Mangala Samaraweera, who spoke to Samantha Power and requested vaccines for Sri Lanka has also passed away. In addition to him, Mr. R.Rajamahendran, similarly President’s Counsel D.S. Wijesinghe, are among the large number of well-known people who have become victims to COVID-19.
“On Monday and Tuesday, six people I knew passed away due to COVID-19.There is a rapid spread of COVID.The number of deaths came up to five thousand (5,000) on August 7, twenty (20) days later by the end of this day it will be eight thousand (8,000). Three thousand (3,000) deaths have taken place in twenty 20 days. That is a high rate, the number of people affected will be about fifty thousand (50,000).
The epidemiology unit has said that there have been late entries, so they will have revise these numbers by about four thousand (4,000). This means that the statistics are also being questioned.
Nevertheless we know that there is a rapid spread of COVID, and we have to prevent that.We have to prevent people being impacted by COVID-19.
What is happening at the moment is deal with those who are already infected, then if we stop the rapid spread then we can reduce the number of those infected and control it. The Government declared a ten (10) day lockdown for this purpose. This has received everyone’s support, but according to the medical advice this is not a sufficient period. Another week to two (2) weeks are required.
“The other side of it is the economic damage that can be caused by a lockdown, but today we have reached a point where the damage caused by a lockdown is far less than the damage caused by not having a lockdown. The remedy for this is to immediately go to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to get assistance. Already we have received US $720 million from the IMF for our COVID control campaign.
“So therefore, I would like to recommend to the Government, to the President, to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers that we extend this lockdown according to medical advice.
“Just as much as we have supported the lockdown for ten days, I am sure that the whole country will support a further lockdown in accordance with the medical advice,”the former PM said.
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