Non-COVID deaths

There may have been at least 10 deaths linked to diseases other than COVID-19 during the lockdown of the country which could have been prevented, health sources told the Sunday Times.

These deaths may have been caused on one hand because people were reluctant to seek treatment in hospitals due to fears of the new coronavirus and came in late or did not come at all, they said. On the other hand, they alleged that staff in some hospitals may not have responded promptly, fearing that the patients who were brought in were infected by COVID-19.

These deaths include some maternal deaths, a young farmer who succumbed to leptospirosis (rat fever), a girl who had an abdominal issue linked to the bowel and others due to non- communicable diseases (NCDs), a source said.

The Sunday Times was unable to get confirmation of these deaths from the Health Ministry. On April 12, in a report headlined ‘Is COVID-19 creating a disaster for non- COVID patients?’ the Sunday Times highlighted concerns whether ‘essential care’ was being misinterpreted as ‘emergency care’. The report quoted sources alleging that there had been some instances where patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) had been shuttled here and there due to the non-availability of specialists.

The College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka (CCPSL) had also focused on the importance of preventing both ‘direct’ mortality from the COVID-19 outbreak and ‘indirect’ mortality from other treatable conditions.