‘Colombo city under control & vaccination going on’

COVID-19 within the city is basically “well-controlled”, said Colombo Municipal Council’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ruwan Wijayamuni on Saturday.

Going by evidence at ground level, he said that 30 people were positive when they carried out targeted random testing of 838 people in all wards and places where cases are being reported. This means a positivity rate of 3.5%, while before Avurudu, it had been between 1.5-2%. This is expected and there is no exponential growth in infection numbers.

“We don’t see big clusters, only small ones,” said Dr. Wijayamuni, adding, however, that they detected 53 positive patients below 30 years of age among 150 unimmunized, in a mission in Colombo.

He said that the vaccination programme with Sinopharm is going on with 21,000 already getting their first dose. This is while the CMC Health Department has also administered the second dose of AstraZeneca to about 2,530 frontline service people including technical officers, solid waste cleaners, road construction workers, street-lighters, etc., and returned 8,500 doses to the Health Ministry for use elsewhere.

On Saturday, vaccination was carried out at five centres and three other areas from which infections were emerging. They were: P.D. Sirisena Ground – Maligawatte; Roxy Garden Community Centre – Wellawatte; Vystwyke Ground – Mattakkuliya; Mugalan Road Sithumina Community Centre; Kettarama Temple; New Bazaar Maternity Home; D2B – Maligawatte; and D5 - Wellawatte MOH office.