Former Prime Minister and Leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe has requested the government to impose a further lockdown to control the rapid spread of Covid infection in the country.
He said according to medical advice, the ten-day period is not sufficient and recommended a further lockdown.
“Just as much as we supported the current lockdown, I am sure all will support a further lockdown to control the pandemic”.
The damage to the economy that can cause by not imposing a lockdown is far greater than the damage that can cause by a lockdown. MrWickremesinghe emphasized.
Mr Wickremesinghe further said
“Mangala Samaraweera, who spoke to Samantha Power and requested vaccines for Sri Lanka, has also passed away.
In addition, Presidents Counsel D.S Wijesinghe, Raja Mahendran and Gowry Thavarasa have become victims to Covid 19. On Monday and Tuesday, six people whom I knew has passed away due to Covid 19. There is a rapid spread of Covid 19. There were 5000 deaths by the 7th of August. Today the number is 8000. Three thousand more deaths have taken place within twenty days, a high rate by all means. There are about 50,000 infected people. Nevertheless, the statistics are also questionable. We have to prevent people from being infected from Covid. What we have to do now is to control the number of infected. The government imposed a ten-day lockdown, this has received everyone’s support, but according to medical specialists, this period is not sufficient. The other side of the story is the economic damage that can cause due to a lockdown. The damage that will cause by not having a lockdown is far more than the damage that can cause by having a lockdown. What we should do is to go to MF for assistance. We have already received 726 million US dollars for the Covid control programme. Therefore I recommend to the government to go for a further lockdown according to medical advice. Just as much as we supported the ten-day lockdown, I am sure that all will co-operate with another lockdown of the country”.
