Covid cases and deaths on the rise; get your booster

The number of COVID19 cases and related deaths are on the rise with health authorities making a fresh appeal for people to receive the booster vaccine.

This week 151 related deaths along with another 6,855 COVID 19 positive cases have been reported.

Throughout the week the daily death toll fluctuated between 20 and 30 with

Monday recording the recent highest daily death toll of 32. Yesterday 28 more deaths were reported.

Twenty- nine persons have died from COVID- 19 on Thursday, the Director General of Health Services announced on Friday (04). This increased the total deaths in the country to 15,572

Meanwhile, daily positive cases exceeded 1000 for the sixth consecutive day on Friday. The highest was reported on Friday, with 1243 persons being tested positive for the virus. A total of 615,902 Sri Lankans have been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 since the first wave. At present 20,138 persons are being treated for COVID in hospitals and receive home-based care under medical supervision.

The Health Ministry said bed occupancy of COVID positive patients has increased to 45-49 percent this week compared to the previous week when it was between 32 to 34 percent.

“Comparatively over the past week we have noticed about 30-35 percent increase in cases, close to 10 percent increase in deaths and about four to five percent increase in ICU and oxygen dependency,” said Dr. Anver Hamdani (Tertiary Care Services) of the Health Ministry.

The Epidemiology Unit said 5.6 million people have received the booster vaccine with 327,633 getting the Pfizer booster during the first four days in February.

Dr. Hamdani said at present 39 percent have received the booster dose and that the number should be at least 70 percent.