Sri Lanka is still in stage – 3A while some areas of the country such as Central Colombo is in stage – 3B of COVID-19 which is a public health emergency, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge said.
According to Dr. Aluthge, Sri Lanka was in stage - 1 with no Covid-19 positive cases reported until January 27, and the country climbed up to stage - 2 on March 11 with the first local Covid-19 infected case reported. In this stage sporadic cases were reported. The country then reached stage – 3A with the starting of reporting home clusters of Covid-19 infected people, where people of the same family got infected.
Dr. Aluthge said that at present some parts of the country have gone on to stage 3B where clusters from villages have been reported, Central Colombo area being one such area. But the country has not reached stage – 4 yet, which is community spreading, and the situation can be controlled.
At this juncture, the country should take maximum steps to control Covid-19 without enabling it to reach stage - 4 where contacts cannot be traced any longer and no one knows from where the virus could be contracted. This is the most dangerous stage where the health staff lose control and the country would fall into the same situation as US, Italy, etc, he added.