Be cautious and assess situation before opening airport
With dengue on the rise, if you have fever, see a doctor
“Sri Lanka is safe at the moment and except for one big cluster, we are detecting only a few COVID-19 cases from among returnees from abroad who are in quarantine centres,” said Consultant Physician Dr. Eranga Narangoda, urging caution before opening the airport to the outside world.
Dr. Narangoda who along with his team is treating a large number of COVID-19 patients at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Angoda, stressed that there should be a very careful assessment before Sri Lanka opens its airport.
In many countries, the infection is still not under control and if Sri Lanka is not vigilant, there could be another wave of infections, he said, when asked by the Sunday Times about the danger of a second wave of COVID-19.
The danger of a second wave (rebounding of the virus) has been seen in countries such as South Korea and Hong Kong, with public health experts across the world including the World Health Organization ( WHO) urging that ‘ containment’ measures should not be
lifted too early.
China faced a resurgence of cases after the return of locals from abroad as also Hong Kong when its students came back from overseas. South Korea which had a second wave of infections after nightclubs and bars were re-opened, closed them again and imposed restrictions.
Germany, which was commended for being one of the more proactive European countries to mitigate the virus, is now reporting clusters of locally-transmitted cases, without an obvious reason.
“We need to ease the lockdown gradually and maintain strong preventive measures such as social distancing and hand-hygiene,” said Dr. Narangoda, happy that currently there are no critically-ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the
NIID.
A youth who was in the ICU for six days has recovered and been moved to the ward, he said, adding that as of Friday morning there were 103 patients under his care.
Dr. Narangoda, when asked, said that there had so far not been Kawasaki-like illness in Sri Lankan children who contracted COVID- 19, as reported from some countries.
The NIID along with the Universities of Colombo and Sri Jayewardenepura had initiated a few clinical trials on different treatment modalities, he added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Narangoda earnestly requested anyone who has fever to seek medical help. “Don’t be fearful but see a doctor because dengue is on the rise. If not treated, we could see high mortality (death) rates.”