Delta variant spreading to other Districts: Prof. Manuj Weerasinghe

COLOMBO (News 1st): Professor Manuj Weerasinghe of the Department of Community Medicine at the Colombo Medical Faculty says that there is a risk of the Delta variant spreading to other Districts as well. He said that because it can be seen that the Delta virus spreading rapidly in homes, whole families have become infected. "The problem we have with this is that when we add the number of hospital admissions and the number of people involved in patient management in the existing system, more people often stay at home without being absorbed into both systems. Then providing services to them is a bit of a problem," he said. "This disease is spreading rapidly in the homes of the Western Province." "It is common to see people leaving their homes under the guise of essential services, despite the curfew. As a result, there is a possibility of a large number of patients being infected in the Western Province on a daily basis. We see an even worse situation now, where the Delta variant is the predominant strain in the Western Province," he added. "With the onset of this movement beyond the Western Province, there is a risk that it will spread to other parts of the country. According to the available data, I think the Delta variant is already spreading to some extent to other Provinces, so there is a risk that the bad situation we see in the Western Province today will spread to other Provinces in the next few weeks as well." "That is why we in the public health sector see the need to maintain the current strict travel restrictions. Otherwise, the situation in the Western Province, which is already bad, could soon reach other parts of the country," he stated.