Do not blame health sector for rise in COVID-19 cases: DDGHS

COLOMBO (News 1st); If there is another COVID-19 cluster, the transport sector, and public service sectors musta take the responsibility for it, as the health sector is already being overburdened with other responsibilities, Deputy Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Hemantha Herath says. He said this while responding to a question about the possibility of upcoming COVID-19 clusters in the near future. When inquired whether the decision to reopen the country and encourage public servants to come to work was a prudent decision, Dr. Herath said that the public should not be discouraged from leading their lives. "We shouldn't scare people and we shouldn't discourage people from leading their life. We need to face this crisis as a country. We need to ensure that everyone abides by health guidelines while doing what is necessary to run the country." Moreover, when Dr. Herath was inquired on the oversaturation of hospitals, he assured that the country is currently in possession of enough beds at hospitals and treatment centers to treat the patients. "We only have 80,000 beds within the health system. We are currently using about 30,000 to treat patients. If we let the virus run rampant, we may not have enough facilities to treat patients. If we are going to get around 5,000 COVID-19 patients per day in the future, we are going to need over 50,000 beds free. " Dr. Herath also emphasized taking as many steps as possible to reduce the number of patients. Meanwhile, he stressed that all public transport employees and public sector officials have the responsibility to act in such a way to ensure that the virus isn't being spread around. "Reducing the number of patients isn't something the health sector can do alone. We need the assistance of everybody for that. Transportation officials cannot let the public get crowded into buses or make buses and trains get congested and then blame the health sector for the rise of COVID-19 cases. Reducing the number of patients is not our responsibility, it's everyone's responsibility. " He said. The Deputy Director-General of Health Services also spoke about the importance of ensuring that public isn't crowding at the newly implemented 24-hour vaccination centers."Please don't unnecessarily get into crowds at the vaccination centers and tents because the officials at the centers are doing their best to handle the situation at the vaccination centers."