{"id":221354,"date":"2021-08-03T12:58:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T07:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=221354"},"modified":"2021-08-04T18:38:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T13:08:46","slug":"relaxation-of-covid-restrictions-be-adding-fuel-to-the-fire-association-of-medical-specialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/relaxation-of-covid-restrictions-be-adding-fuel-to-the-fire-association-of-medical-specialists\/","title":{"rendered":"Relaxation Of Covid Restrictions Be Adding Fuel To The Fire: Association Of Medical Specialists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"s2\">&#8220;Relaxation of Covid restrictions in our opinion be adding &#8220;fuel to the fire&#8221;. With such relaxations reaching the general public, who are already complacent in obeying guidelines, will invariably start behaving like &#8220;free birds\u201d aggravating the crisis further,&#8221; says the <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Association+Of+Medical+Specialists\">Association of Medical Specialists<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Issuing a statement today the Association of Medical Specialists said &#8220;<span class=\"s2\">We are quite disappointed and saddened by the silence of professionals who act in advisory and advocacy capacity for lack of courage to inform the decision makers of the TRUTH and REALITIES of the ground situation. We are almost certain that these advisors are very well aware of the current grim situation in the health sector.&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-207158\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"898\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3-128x86.jpg 128w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-3.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 898px) 100vw, 898px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We publish below the statement in full:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">With the delta variant being commonly detected, the number of patients and more disturbingly exponential rise in the number of oxygen dependent patients, our capacity to accommodate them has virtually reached its tipping point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">With the increasing demand for oxygen, it will be a matter of few days to exceed the supply and hence resultant deaths due to lack of oxygen or more importantly due to the lack of oxygen delivery mechanism to the patient\u2019s bedside. This crisis will be equally applicable to both public and private sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">In this backdrop, further relaxation of Covid restrictions in our opinion be adding &#8220;fuel to the fire&#8221;. With such relaxations reaching the general public, who are already complacent in obeying guidelines, will invariably start behaving like &#8220;free birds\u201d aggravating the crisis further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">We, as a professional body feel it is our prime responsibility to alert and warn the decision makers of the current grim situation. In our opinion, relaxation should have commenced once we&#8217;ve achieved vaccination targets along with declining number of <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Covid-19\">Covid-19<\/a><\/span> daily cases, may be in four to eight weeks from now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">With declining economic performance indicators, we are quite aware of the urgency the government has in getting the economy back on track. However, impatient and hurried decisions to open the country up will invariably delay any expected economic growth due to surging Covid-19 related mortality and morbidity. As medical specialists, we strongly believe that economists and others have to be alive in the first place to develop the economy and no tourist will come to our country unless and until we are a reasonably safe place with regards to current pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">We are quite disappointed and saddened by the silence of professionals who act in advisory and advocacy capacity for lack of courage to inform the decision makers of the TRUTH and REALITIES of the ground situation. We are almost certain that these advisors are very well aware of the current grim situation in the health sector.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Therefore, we are compelled to request the government to revisit their Covid-19 restriction protocols in the wake of surging numbers, specially with this deadly delta variant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">As scientific, practical and pragmatic professionals, we strongly believe that we have to have an intact nation to revive the economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">We certainly understand the importance of livelihoods provided the lives are saved. We wish to conclude with a well-known medical quote &#8211; &#8220;It is better to have a living problem than a dead certainty&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Dr LakKumar Fernando <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Dr R Gnanasekeram<br \/>\nPresident-AMS <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>General Secretary-AMS\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":209335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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