COLOMBO- Sri Lanka recorded three COVID-19 related fatalities on Tuesday (27), with a 19-year-old male as the youngest victim, taking the country’s novel coronavirus death toll to 19. The other two deaths reported on Tuesday include an 87-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man
The three deaths are the most reported in a day and cap a five-day spike which has seen six COVID-19 related fatalities.
The Ministry of Health, confirming the deaths, identified the 19-year-old as a disabled youth from the Keselwatte area and the 87-year-old woman as hailing from Slave Island. Both had been admitted to the National Hospital Colombo, the woman with a foot injury, but were deemed to have subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Three deaths have now been reported from the premier hospital in as many days.
Health authority officials said the woman had been admitted to hospital a week ago.
Earlier Tuesday, the Department of Government Information reported the death of a 41-year-old male who had been receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Colombo. In a statement quoting the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, it said the deceased, a resident from Ja-Ela, had been suffering from Cirrhosis, and had been admitted to the IDH on Saturday (24).
The deaths and the fourth, fifth and sixth to be recorded after a new and more virulent strain of the virus emerged in a new cluster in Minuwangoda, with the apparel factory in the area as the epicentre earlier this month. Since then the cluster has seen sub-clusters in several parts of the country, with the largest case load reported from the Peliyagoda fish market. As of Monday (26) night, the Minuwangoda cluster had recorded 4,939 cases with 541 testing COVID-19 positive during the course of the day.
The other COVID-19 deaths reported after the recent outbreak includes a 70-year-old man from Colombo on Sunday (25), a 56-year-old man from Kulyapitiya, in the Kurunegala district on Saturday (24), and 50-year-old woman also from Kuliyapitiya, on Thursday (22).
Meanwhile, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) warned on Monday that any neglect on the part of the government to curb the imminent community spread of the virus could lead to disastrous consequences including unusually high fatality rates.
“There is a seriously risky situation emerging in the country. Managing the present situation in order to prevent community transmission is the main challenge we are now faced with,” GMOA General Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge told reporters, noting that Sri Lanka had seen three COVID-related deaths within a few short days.
If, going forward, Sri Lanka continues its present course of action, managing the pandemic will prove prohibitively difficult, Dr. Aluthge said, warning, “What this means is if we don’t make the right decisions today, we can expect an unusually high number of deaths over the next two months.”
-ENCL