Surge in shortage of medicines as COVID-19 battle intensifies: GMOA

COLOMBO (News1st): A medical body has observed that there is a shortage of more than 500 essential drugs in the country which is highly focused on combatting the novel coronavirus. "This situation should be rectified to protect the people from the coronavirus and other diseases as well," the government medical officers association (GMOA) said in a statement on Friday. The GMOA also urged patients including those suffering from heart ailments who require emergency treatment to seek treatment at hospitals without delays as it could result in deaths. Meanwhile, the medical body reiterated its call to scale up COVID-19 testing in the country, citing that it is vital to be carried out before relaxing the lockdown style curfew restrictions which are in place. "Our country is capable of carrying out 1500 tests daily. However, we are doing only about 500 tests at present," the statement read. The government has been eyeing a possibility of resuming operations with schools and universities set to open on May 11, a move critics say is to conduct the general election. Sri Lanka has reported 244 cases of COVID - 19 among which seven have died while 77 have recovered. The GMOA in its statement pointed out that based on the coronavirus patient distribution across the country, the authorities should classify the areas as contaminated zones, buffer zones, and sterile zones to assist in curbing the spread of the virus. On Friday, the medical body wrote to army chief Shavendra Silva who heads the national centre for the prevention of COVID-19, seeking to establish district level task force groups to assist in combatting the virus.